Stafford Railway Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

The information on this page is designed to keep solicitors and licensed conveyancers abreast of latest requirements changes by Stafford Railway Building Society and to assist in remaining on the Stafford Railway Building Society Approved Conveyancing Solicitors Panel.

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How does my firm apply to be on the Stafford Railway Building Society Approved Conveyancing Solicitors Panel?

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How can my firm be reinstated onto the Stafford Railway Building Society Approved Conveyancing Solicitors Panel?

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Stafford Railway Building Society Solicitor Panel Assistance:

What are the Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel arrangements?

Unlike the UK Finance the Building Society Mortgage Instructions deal with this. Section A.12 states ‘In order to act on our behalf your firm or company must be a member of our conveyancing panel provided we are a society that operates one – see specific requirements for details of our arrangements. The Special Requirements state:

The Society uses Legal Marketing Services Ltd (LMS) for its panel arrangements.

You must also comply with the terms and conditions of your Stafford Railway Building Society solicitor panel appointment.

A long standing client of my firm is looking to acquire a semi detached house for £607,500 in Cheshire requiring a mortgage advance over GBP 415k. I am on the Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel but do Stafford Railway Building Society have a separate approved panel when a mortgage is above 350k?

We only know of two or three banks that operate a distinct conveyancing panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain level. You should nevertheless check directly with Stafford Railway Building Society. At one stage HSBC would only allow Sole practitioners to act for them where the mortgage was below £150,000. We are not sure if HSBC still operate such a condition. In your case it is best to check with Stafford Railway Building Society

Being on the Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel how long am I expected to archive the original conveyancing file?

The BSA Mortgage Instructions state that the firm must keep the file for a minimum six years from the date of the mortgage. Data imaging is normally suitable compliance with this requirement. As a firm on the Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel you must allow Stafford Railway Building Society to conduct such reasonable audit of your information security measures as Stafford Railway Building Society or their agents may to ensure your compliance with your file retention obligations.

What reports are available via COMPLETIONmonitor to assist my appeal to be reinstated on the Stafford Railway Building Society solicitor panel?

There are many reports available but examples include:

Average time frame to register charges at the Land Registry
Average time frame to send deeds to the lender (calculated from completion date or title registration)
Number of conveyancing cases by lender
The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale)
Average mortgage advance
Buy to Let transactions
Notification to Lender analysis indicating frequency and nature of disclosures - to include benchmarking analysis against aggregate data
Evidence of undertaking logs
Current and historic missed priority dates
Analysis as to the nature of clients (e.g. existing client )

What type of firms do building societies accept on their approved solicitor panel?

In the same way that there is a unique Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel most building societies, operate a conveyancing panel for solicitors and other conveyancers that the lender will instruct. Terms and Conditions and criteria for inclusion on a building society conveyancing panel vary from lender-to-lender. Having CQS accreditation may be a requirement.

Institutional lenders, such as a building society, is a client and is entitled to instruct the solicitor or conveyancer of its choosing (who, in turn, is free to accept or refuse instructions). Therefore, if lender and borrower cannot agree which solicitor or conveyancer should represent them jointly, they would usually proceed on a separate representation basis.

My firm is on the Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel. I am dealing with Stafford Railway Building Society mortgage on a purchase. My borrower client is asking not to disclose an issue to Stafford Railway Building Society. What do I do in this conflict situation?

When a solicitor is acting for both Stafford Railway Building Society and borrower there is potential for conflicts to arise. You owe duties to both clients. All information received by you from your client is confidential and cannot be disclosed without the client’s consent.

In your situation, if the purchaser will not consent to the information being passed on to the lender, the solicitor must cease to act for Stafford Railway Building Society and it may well be prudent for you to cease to act for the purchaser as well. You must not inform Stafford Railway Building Society of the reason for termination of the retainer over and above the fact that a conflict has arisen. The fact that you can no longer act should alert even the most somnambulistic of lenders that something is wrong with the borrower and/or purchase. The fact that you have disinstructed yourself should not affect your Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel status.

What lender panels do you receive the most questions about?

BSA lenders do not come within the top 20 lenders in terms of frequency of questions. The most popular lender panels in terms of questions are as follows:

Find a Lawyer on the Stafford Railway Building Society Approved Conveyancing Solicitors Panel

Average number of days to register title including a charge in favour of Stafford Railway Building Society

This information relates to purchase only and not remortgages.

Year	Days*
2026	[no data]
2025	[no data]
2024	[no data]
2023	[no data]
2022	[no data]
2021	[no data]

* Data aggregated from sources including COMPLETIONmonitor

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