Find a Law Firm approved by Banks & Clients

When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchaser's solicitors to also act for the purchaser's lender.

In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitors should contact Banks and Clients and see if they can apply for membership of the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Banks and Clients will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

One of the many conditions to being on the Banks and Clients approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Banks and Clients)which specifies that a local authority search be not more than 6 months old. You should nevertheless ask your lawyer to check whether something called ‘search validation’ indemnity insurance is acceptable to Banks and Clients.

Not all firms are yet listed on our lender panel search tool which is still relatively new. Law firms are listing on a daily basis and it is probably the case that your lawyer is on the Banks and Clients conveyancing lawyer and you should probably take them at their word. Please do feel free to suggest that they completing their listing on our site as it would only cost them £1 a month to list themselves as being on the Banks and Clients solicitor panel.

If you have an estate agent involved then inform them immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors may be able to assist

Many lenders do operate a restricted conveyancing panel but a lot of lenders allow any solicitors to join their panel so long as they meet their criteria. Each lender sets their own criteria. For example the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel requirements are different to Banks and Clients’s conveyancing panel requirements.

Some lenders take longer than others. Have Banks and Clients done the survey? Have you advised Banks and Clients as your lawyers details and checked that your lawyer is on the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel? sometimes it can take as long as six weeks for a mortgage offer to be issued

Your original mortgage agreement with Banks and Clients will provide that you need their approval in advance of letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Banks and Clients’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Banks and Clients will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Banks and Clients directly. You need not do this via a Banks and Clients conveyancing panel firm.