About CQS Conveyancing

Baron Rothschild, the 18th century British nobleman and member of the Rothschild banking family, is credited with saying, "The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets." He should know. Rothschild made a fortune buying in the panic that followed the Battle of Waterloo against Napoleon. On 17 June 2013, the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) decided to withdraw all operating licences issued to Balva and commence the winding-up process by appointing a liquidator. Hundreds of law firms who insured with failed Latvian insurer Balva face being caught in an ‘unrated cycle’ after offers from other unrated insurance providers. Balva are the latest of a number of unrated insurers  who have gone to the wall in the last few years. In 2009, Quinn Insurance – which was soon to collapse into administration – lost €333m [£282.7m] in the UK alone, prompting it to pull back from solicitors’ PI. And only last year, another PI provider, Gibraltar-based Lemma Europe I...

PI insurers are still seeing a significant number of claims relating to mortgage redemption statements. A leading insurer recently advised me of a case where the solicitor was completing the sale of his clients' property, on which he knew there were two charges. He had obtained statements on each charge, and on the day of completion he asked a junior colleague to phone the bank for a final figure. His colleague only saw one of the two statements on the file, and the solicitor had not warned her that there were two charges. When he was given the redemption figure, he did not check that the figure included both. He paid the bank the amount that his colleague had been told, and paid the balance to his client, you can guess the rest. To avoid this type of problem you should use a system like COMPLETIONmonitor which can only be signed off by the lawyer. Alternatively, mark the file clearly to show what charges are on a property, together with account numbers. Where po...

Conveycentric has been notified by the Council of Mortgage Lenders that they intend to publish important amendments to the CML Lender's Handbook for England and Wales on July 8, 2013.  Members and relevant stakeholders consulted on the changes for the new Part 1 question added as 5.20.4, which were made necessary by the Green Deal.   The specific new Part 1 question states, "Check Part 2 to see whether we require you to disclose the details of any existing Green Deal Plan(s) on a property".   Simon Seaton, CEO of Conveycentric, commented, "We are grateful to the CML who continue to be very helpful in preparing us for major changes so that we can assist the users of LENDERmonitor and COMPLETIONmonitor.  We will be notifying about 3000 solicitors and conveyancer of lender-specific requirements on July 8th.  We expect amendments to be made to the BSA Mortgage Instructions by October". LENDERmonitor, supported by the CML, provides conveyance...

It is a common misconception amongst the public and conveyancers that the Green Deal creates a legal charge over a property. It does not. The Energy Act 2011 prevents a Green Deal Provider from taking a charge over a person’s property by way of security for payments due under the Plan.

Newbury Building Society and Newbury Mortgage Services Ltd yesterday extended their conveyancing panel requirements by making changes to Section A.12 of their BSA Mortgage Instructions . Acceptance to the panel is now subject to application and subject the following criteria: • The firm must have at least two qualifying partners. • The firm must be registered with the SRA / CLC. • Professional Indemnity Insurance with minimum £2m cover. • For solicitors, the firm must have CQS accreditation. Firms that are set up as Alternative Business Structures are accepted if the underlying legal practice has been in existence at least 5 years and meets the above requirements. Conveyancers that are not on the panel will be invited on receipt of a mortgage application where the client proposes them to act. For commercial applications the lender will instruct their own solicitor (separate legal representation). Contact Newbury Building Society’s Mortgage Underwriting Team 01...

One of the many obligations imposed on a conveyancing solicitor is to check the mortgage documents and ensure that the borrower (client) understands the obligations contained within the mortgage deed but also within the loan offer. This is no doubt one the reasons why the solicitor is sent the mortgage offer in the first place. This is reaffirmed at paragraph 11.1.2 of the CML Handbook which states “You should explain to each borrower (and any other person signing or executing a document) his responsibilities and liabilities under the documents referred to in paragraph 11.1.1 and any documents he is required to sign”. Imagine the shock when Scottish solicitors realised that the HSBC loan documents stated that the conditions were to be governed by English law. Notwithstanding the CML obligations at Paragraph 11.1., the vast majority of Scottish lawyers cannot be expected provide advice on English law contracts. In a recent letter published in the Journal of the Law Society of Scotlan...

Following on from my post Do you have a preferred conveyancing client ? I see similarities between a conveyancing practice and a restaurant. A savvy restaurateur might build up a fine dining, a silver service high- priced venture. Or he might build up a successful business selling fast food meals at the lowest possible prices. Or he could make a success of Indian, Chinese, or Italian cuisine. Each would attract a following. Customers would come expecting a specific kind of meal. However, with all his skill, he could not possibly build up a clientele if, one day he served the costliest meals, the next day low-priced ones, and then, without warning, served nothing but sushi. So too with Conveyancing. The owners of a practice have to decide on their preferred clientele. What end of the spectrum do they want to concentrate on?  Is it the equivalent of fast food--factory conveyancing--or something analogous to a fine dining restaurant where the experienced and qualified lawyer cater...

HSBC last week made another change to their CML Handbook Part 2 requirements. This time the amendment was made to the wording of paragraph 5.7.b which relates to whether HSBC will lend on freehold flats. In truth,freehold flats are as rare as a QPR win in the premiership. Most flats in England and Wales are subject to leases. The reason why lenders are concerned about their security in a freehold flat is that owners (or mortgagees in possession) of freehold flats run into difficulty when major structural problems arise with the property. Unless there is a legal agreement in force between the owner of the freehold flat and the owners of adjacent properties there could well face significant problems in the future in agreeing structural repairs and their associated costs. Thus HSBC’s stance is now as follows: “Freehold flats or freehold maisonettes are not acceptable unless the customer will on completion also acquire (or already has) the whole or a share of the free...

Accord Buy to Let announced last week that it is widening its solicitor panel. The number now on their panel will be in the region of 2000 strong. Conveyancing Solicitors on the current Accord Mortgages residential panel will now be accepted for buy to let conveyancing if they possess the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) accreditation from the Law Society of England and Wales. It is not clear as to what their position is regarding Licensed Conveyancers who clearly can not qualify for CQS accreditation. Accord Buy to Let national account manager Chris Maggs says that when the lender first entered the buy-to-let market in 2011 it wanted to operate a limited solicitor panel while it established its proposition. He went on to say  “With the introduction of the Law Society’s CQS scheme we now feel in a position to expand our solicitor panel to include all firms on the Accord Mortgages conveyancing panel who hold this accreditation.” Accord seem to be following the lead of Santand...

Although not an English ruling, the New South Wales Court of Appeal decision of Provident Capital Ltd v Papa [2013] NSWCA provides timely guidance in relation to a Court’s position on the obligations placed on conveyancing solicitors in relation to lending practices. In their decision the court found that there had been negligence on the part of the solicitor providing advice to a borrower and ordered that the solicitor pay damages to his client. On 5 April 2007 Mrs. Papa mortgaged her home to Provident Capital. This mortgage was security for a loan of $700,000.00 and a further advance of $125,000.00. Provident Capital required Mrs Papa to obtain independent legal advice in regards to these loans and the security documents. She did obtain this advice from a solicitor, Mr George Caramanlis. Upon Mrs Papa’s default, Provident Capital brought proceedings against her for recovery of possession of her property. She disputed this action, claiming, successfully as it turned...

Let me first of all confess , even though I have worked at firms that have offered it, I don't like ‘no sale no fee’ as sales tool . I think it cheapens conveyancing and my previous posts make it clear what I think about the race to to be the cheapest conveyancer . I am not even convinced that it is something that the public expect. This post is more about an adverse side effect of ‘no sale no fee’ conveyancing. I believe that the commercial reality of ‘no sale no fee’ purchase conveyancing is that some solicitors (not all) will wait to receive the mortgage offer before they do a full investigation of title. The introduction of defensive conveyancing, centralised in the hands of those more interested in reducing fees than providing a service, means that little gets done until a loan offer appears. Meantime an impatient public and an even more frustrated agent will point the finger of blame in only one direction. Perhaps a compromise is to make it perfectly clear to ...

In the decision in Santander UK Plc v R.A. Legal Solicitors (a firm) [2013] EWHC 1380 (QB) Andrew Smith followed the appeal court’s decision in December 2012 in Nationwide Building Society v Davisons Solicitors that a law firm can be relieved of consequential liability for a breach of trust if it acts honestly and reasonably In this case Santander agreed to provide a mortgage to the purchaser of a residential property in London. RA Legal were instructed to act for the purchaser and the lender on the matter. The mortgage advance in 2009 was paid by RA Legal to the vendor's solicitor in reliance on documents provided in the usual way. In transpired that the vendor's solicitor was a fraudster who stole the mortgage monies. In case you were wondering....the vendor's solicitors was a regulated firm. RA Legal even phoned the Law Society to check. There were no obvious signs that the vendor's solicitors were about to perpetrate a fraud. The vendor firm established in 2006 h...

How often does a conveyancer wish to themselves - If only I could choose my clients? Well to a certain extent you can! It seems obvious, doesn't it? Each conveyancing client has a set of service requirements, a price they're willing to pay and a period of time they're willing to invest. And yet... ….all too often, we try and be all things to all people, to all estate agents or brokers or trying to attract high end clients and working on an internet presence which necessitates low headline fees. When I first started a law firm we were at our most successful when we promised to go and see every client at their offices or home (as long as they were within the M25). We even offered a ‘no-commitment’ meeting. Believe me when I say that not many prospective clients are going to have a cup of tea with you and then instruct a cheap as chips conveyancer over the internet. First figure out who you'd like your client to be, then go make something just for t...

Wave Lending Limited, a subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation, has taken down their Part 2 requirements from the CML Handbook The home page for Wave Lending now states: ‘Wave has ceased all mortgage origination activity. All borrower enquiries should continue to be made to our customer services department, the contact details can be found in the contact us section’. Wave Lending Ltd is authorised and regulated by Financial Services Authority, although not all forms of mortgages are regulated by the FSA. Historic CML Part 2 requirements for Wave can be obtained from LENDERmonitor via their Litigation Service.

As of the 1st June 2013 solicitors and conveyancers representing Halifax on Transfer of Equity cases will need to inform them as soon as the transfer has taken place. On the 31st May 2013 Halifax transfer of equity requirements changes with Halifax adding the following wording to Paragraph 16.3.7b of Part 2 of the CML Handbook : ‘PLEASE NOTE we require you to confirm the effective date of the transfer before we can update our records – failure to do so will mean that we will continue to correspond with the original parties to the mortgage’. Lawyers should make a file note or reminder to themselves to inform Halifax once the transfer is completed. If do not you should expect your client(s) to call you to let you know that Halifax have been in touch with them. This would be a rather embarrassing situation to find yourself in as the client will no doubt be asking themselves why you had not contacted the lender. This situation is fairly easy to avoid if you make a ...