Stafford Railway Building Society Solicitor Panel Assistance:
What are the Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel criteria?
Unlike the CML 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.
Do Stafford Railway Building Society or the BSA run professional training seminars for the Stafford Railway Building Society approved conveyancing panel in the same way that CQS run CPD Courses for accredited firms?
The BSA do not involve themselves in training but they do provided a number of general legal related conferences which are attended by firms on the Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel. It is our intention to run specific lender focused seminars in the near future including a webinar on Stafford Railway Building Society’s obligations . Law firms on the Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel will be invited . Further details will be made available as part of the LENDERmonitor change Notifications .
Being on the Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel for what period of time am I expected to retain 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.
A recent SRA survey reveals that three quarters of solicitors have been removed or threatened with removal from a lender conveyancing panel. Stafford Railway Building Society and other building societies have restricted their panel over the years. Why?
The feeling from lenders generally (we can not speak for Stafford Railway Building Society specifically), is that for too long
solicitors have concentrated on their duty of care to their purchasing
client, and have paid scant attention to the duty they owe to the
lender, whom they conveniently forget is also their client.
Looking from the lenders’ perspective, it has to be said that there are pressures to encourage smaller panels. The Financial Services Authority regards the open panel system as a major contributor to mortgage fraud and negligence cases, and has been leaning on lenders to move to proactive panel management, which is more expensive the larger the panel. Hence it is becoming more common for lenders to charge fees, and/or require extensive form-filling, from would-be panel members
Stafford Railway Building Society and other BSA lenders are in varying stages of reviewing their approach to vetting firms on their conveyancing panels, to ensure their ongoing exposure to unsuitable firms is reduced.
Are the Council of Licensed Conveyancers taking any action to protect licensed conveyancers from being removed from lender panels?
As is the case with the Law Society the CLC has begun discussions with banks and their representative bodies to see whether and how the risks that lenders wish to mitigate could be addressed through the regulatory framework rather than ad hoc arrangements that can differ from lender to lender. It is likely that that the CLC have been in touch with lenders such as Stafford Railway Building Society in the recent past
What information is 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 (purchase and remortgage)
- 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. seen in person)
My PI renewal application this year contained the following question: ‘Has your Firm been asked by a lender to agree to more onerous terms and conditions than provided for in the BSA Mortgage Instructions?’ My firm is on a number of bank panels including the Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing panel. We have Terms and Conditions of appointment which we have to follow. Should I reference these Conditions?
The concern here is if you are expect to enter into ‘more onerous’ conditions that than the Handbook obligations.
You have to try and take an objective view as to whether the Terms relating to the Stafford Railway Building Society conveyancing appointment (or other terms for other lenders) are ‘more onerous’ than the BSA Mortgage Instructions. Depending on the Terms you may need to provide details on your renewal form. If you are in any doubt please call your broker to discuss before moving forward on this question.
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
powered by LenderPanel
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
Other related topics:
- CQS policy templates and procedures for accredited Stafford Railway Building Society Firms
- Draft Report on Title precedent for Stafford Railway Building Society borrowers
- Draft Anti Money Laundering PolicyTemplate for Stafford Railway Building Society panel firms to consider
- Dealing with Lender Policy Template panel for CQS accredited firms on the Stafford Railway Building Society lender panel
- Buy-to-Let help for Stafford Railway Building Society
- Consent-to-Let help for Stafford Railway Building Society
- Contractor Mortgages with Stafford Railway Building Society
