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approved by Bank of Scotland

Bank of Scotland and other lenders ordinarily imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing practices on their approved list of lawyers. A common example of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that Bank of Scotland have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Bank of Scotland Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, Conveyancing is not their speciality? To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime; probably not.

A precondition to being on the Bank of Scotland approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Bank of Scotland) which do require that your lawyer disclose any incorrect assumptions in the lender’s valuation report and the legal papers. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.

The law firms listed on our site have advised us that they are on the Bank of Scotland panel and agreed to advise us to take down their listing in the event of removal off of the Bank of Scotland panel. To date we have not been informed by either a bank or a member of the public that the data about a specific firm being on the Bank of Scotland conveyancing panel is not accurate.

You can use any solicitor you like but Bank of Scotland then has the right to appoint a different solicitor to act for them at your expense. It might be more cost effective and quicker to instruct a lawyer who is on the Bank of Scotland solicitors panel

As solicitors, in order to be on the Bank of Scotland conveyancing panel they would need to be regulated by the SRA. Many lenders do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such firms would be regulated by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC).

You will need to appoint solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the Bank of Scotland conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and the Bank of Scotland through the process.

The estate agent will want to know who your solicitors are (make sure these solicitors are on the lenders panel). Call up Bank of Scotland or your broker and complete any relevant paperwork. Bank of Scotland will tell you what documents they want. Bank of Scotland will instruct a valuer. The valuer will get in touch with the estate agent or seller to book an appointment. Once conducted (assuming no problems) it takes about week to get a mortgage offer. Bank of Scotland will issue the offer to you and your lawyer. The transaction will then take it’s course according the nature and complexity of the conveyancing.