HSBC Mortgage Approved, but Is Your Solicitor?

If you intend to use an HSBC mortgage, checking your conveyancer’s panel status should be one of the first steps in the transaction. Finding out after searches have been ordered or exchange is approaching can mean additional expense, delay and another firm becoming involved.

HSBC, like other mortgage lenders, maintains a panel of solicitors and licensed conveyancers that it is prepared to instruct. A conveyancer may be highly experienced and properly regulated but still be unable to act for HSBC on your mortgage.

You can use the HSBC Bank conveyancing panel directory to search by postcode or town for firms covering your area in England and Wales.

What is the HSBC conveyancing panel?

A mortgage lender needs its own legal interests protected. The conveyancer acting on a typical residential purchase usually represents both the buyer and the lender.

For the buyer, the conveyancer investigates the title, searches, contract and other legal issues affecting the property. For HSBC, the conveyancer must also follow the lender’s instructions, report relevant matters and confirm that the legal requirements for releasing the mortgage advance have been satisfied.

The HSBC conveyancing panel is the group of firms the bank is willing to instruct for that work. Being regulated to conduct conveyancing does not automatically place a firm on every lender’s panel. Each lender operates its own arrangements and criteria.

How to check your conveyancer in three steps

1. Search the HSBC panel directory. Search by the firm’s location if you have already chosen a conveyancer, or by your own postcode if you are still comparing firms.
2. Check the correct office. Do not assume that approval necessarily covers every branch or trading address used by a practice. Confirm that the office handling your matter is recognised for the work.
3. Ask the firm to confirm its status in writing. The confirmation should be current, identify HSBC and relate to the office that will conduct your transaction.

A directory check is a sensible starting point, but it should not replace direct confirmation. Panel membership can change and no third party directory should be mistaken for a guarantee from HSBC.

Why should the check be made before instruction?

A panel problem is much easier to solve before money has been paid and work has begun.

If the issue is discovered early, you can compare suitable firms and make an informed choice. If it emerges later, you may already have paid for searches, supplied identification, transferred money on account and spent weeks dealing with one conveyancer.

A late discovery can lead to one of three outcomes:

• you appoint a different conveyancer who can act for both you and HSBC;
• your existing conveyancer continues to act for you while a separate panel firm represents HSBC, if the bank permits separate representation; or
• your chosen firm seeks panel approval or reactivation, with no guarantee that it will be accepted within your timetable.

Each option can affect the cost and timing of the transaction. Where a mortgage offer, chain or agreed completion date is involved, even a short delay can become significant.

Being absent from the panel is not necessarily a criticism

A firm may not be on the HSBC panel for many reasons. It may conduct little mortgage work, have chosen not to apply, be awaiting an administrative update or no longer meet a particular panel criterion.

The absence of a firm from the list does not by itself establish poor quality or misconduct. Equally, panel membership should not be treated as an endorsement of every aspect of the service a firm provides.

The panel question is narrower. Can this firm currently represent HSBC on this particular mortgage transaction?

Panel membership and lender instructions are different questions

Confirming that a firm is on the panel is essential, but it is not the end of the lender enquiry.

An approved conveyancer must follow the instructions applying to HSBC. These can address matters such as lease terms, gifted deposits, occupiers, incentives, title defects, insurance, searches and reporting obligations.

Requirements can differ between lenders. A property accepted by another bank is not automatically acceptable to HSBC on the same terms. The conveyancer must consider the current instructions, the mortgage offer and the facts of the transaction.

This also explains why a conveyancer may need to report an issue to HSBC even when the buyer is personally willing to proceed. The firm is not acting only for the purchaser. It owes separate duties to the lender and cannot ignore the lender’s instructions.

HSBC panel arrangements have changed before

Panel status and lender requirements should never be treated as permanent.

Our earlier article, Is the Welcome Mat Gone from the HSBC Conveyancing Panel?, examined concerns about access to the panel in 2014. The article appeared in the supplied list of About Conveyancing pages that were not indexed and is relevant background to the continuing importance of checking status rather than assuming it.

A second unindexed article, HSBC Change to Conveyancing Panel Instructions, recorded a change to the bank’s instructions in 2016. Its historic wording should not be used as current guidance. Its present value is that it demonstrates how lender instructions can change over time.

If a current transaction depends on an HSBC requirement, the conveyancer must check the current source. If an earlier transaction is being investigated, the relevant question may instead be what the instructions said on the date of that purchase or mortgage.

What if your solicitor is not on the HSBC panel?

Do not wait for the problem to resolve itself. Ask the firm to confirm the position and explain the available options.

You should establish:

• whether the firm is definitely outside the panel or whether an office or administrative detail needs correcting;
• whether HSBC will permit a separate panel firm to represent the bank;
• what additional legal fees may be charged;
• whether searches and other work can be transferred if you change firms;
• how the change would affect exchange and completion; and
• whether any money paid on account is refundable.

If the original firm said it could act for HSBC when it could not, ask for a clear explanation and details of the proposed solution. Keep the quotation, terms of engagement and any written confirmation of panel status.

Questions to ask before choosing an HSBC conveyancer

• Are you currently able to act for HSBC on my mortgage?
• Does that approval cover the office handling my file?
• Will you act for both me and HSBC?
• Is any separate lender representation fee included in the quotation?
• Who will handle my matter and how can I contact them?
• Have you allowed for leasehold, new build or other additional work relevant to my purchase?
• Will you tell me promptly if your panel status changes?

Price matters, but the cheapest quotation can become expensive if it does not cover the work required or the firm cannot act for the chosen lender.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use any solicitor with an HSBC mortgage?

You can choose a solicitor to represent you, but HSBC will require its interests to be handled by a firm it accepts. Using one firm that can act for both parties is usually simpler.

Does an HSBC branch choose my conveyancer?

You normally choose your own conveyancer. The relevant point is whether the firm can also act for HSBC on the mortgage.

Can I change conveyancer after the transaction has started?

Yes, but changing can cause additional work, cost and delay. Ask the incoming firm what documents and searches can be transferred and obtain a clear quotation before deciding.

Does approval by another lender count?

No. A firm’s membership of another bank’s panel does not establish that it is on the HSBC panel.

Can panel membership change during my transaction?

Yes. Although this may be unusual, panel status is not permanent. A current written confirmation is more useful than an assumption based on an earlier matter.

Do I need an HSBC panel solicitor when selling?

A seller who is repaying an existing HSBC mortgage will not ordinarily need the firm to act for HSBC on a new loan. The position is different when buying or remortgaging with new HSBC finance.

Check first, instruct second

Panel membership is an administrative detail until it is missed. It can then become a practical obstacle affecting legal fees, the mortgage timetable and the whole chain.

Before instructing, search the HSBC conveyancing panel directory, check the correct office and obtain written confirmation from the firm. Those few steps are far easier than changing conveyancer when exchange is approaching.

---

This article provides general information and is not legal or financial advice. Panel membership and lender requirements can change. Confirm the conveyancer’s current status and the applicable HSBC requirements before relying on them.