Virgin Conveyancing Panel Information

We only know of two or three lenders that operate a distinct approved solicitors panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain amount. You should nevertheless check directly with Virgin. 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 Virgin

When a solicitor is acting for both Virgin 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 the situation you find yourself in if the purchaser will not consent to the information being passed on to the lender the solicitor must cease to act for the Virgin and it may well be prudent you to cease to act for the purchaser as well. You can not tell the Virgin 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 Virgin conveyancing panel status.

You will be aware of the trend in recent years for lenders such as Virgin to take a much more pro-active approach in relation to the management and make up of their conveyancer panels. The knock on effect of this is that it is more likely that there will be a higher number of cases where a conveyancer is not on the Virgin panel. The situation that you find yourself in is where your client’s purchaser has his/her own lawyer and Virgin have appointed a separate lawyer to act on their behalf where the new CML Part 3 requirements apply. Section 11.1 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Part 3 requires Virgin’s panel solicitor to ‘ ...transfer the mortgage advance directly to the Seller’s conveyancer. The Seller’s conveyancer must be required to hold the mortgage advance on the terms of the required undertaking. The example borrower’s conveyancer’s undertaking letter includes a specific example of the seller’s undertaking’. You should expect to be advised to received the mortgage advance directly from the conveyancing solicitors for Virgin. You will no doubt be required to undertake directly to Virgin’s solicitors to discharge any charges secured on the property and to send directly to them the executed transfer and any other documents required to enable us to effect registration. Please remember to carefully consider undertakings in accordance with your firm’s protocol and record them in your undertakings logg. Please remember that as well as this breach of this undertaking having regulatory and compliance implications it’s breach could also result in your firm being removed off the Virgin conveyancing panel.

In this situation please clarify on the application what steps you have taken to discover the reasons behind cancellation of your Virgin panel membership. In particular please provide details if you have received communications from the lender. E.G. before cessation of your panel membership did you receive any letters or calls from the lender advising you as to their reasons?

You would be advised to contact Virgin to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook has an explicit question for banks to establish who to contact to obtain standard documents. Virgin in their Part 2’s state: Please remember to disclose the firm’s Virgin conveyancing panel number.