Check Your Solicitor Is on the NatWest Conveyancing Panel

National Westminster Bank keeps a list of the solicitors and licensed conveyancers it is willing to deal with. If your firm is not on it, the bank will not send your mortgage money to them, however competent they are, and however far along the transaction has got.

Most NatWest cases are also instructed through the LMS portal, which is where the certificate of title is submitted and where redemption statements are requested. So the question is not only whether a firm does conveyancing, but whether it is set up to work the way this lender works.

Checking takes two minutes

1. Look the firm up. The NatWest panel directory on LenderPanel.com covers approved firms in England and Wales. Search by name if you have chosen someone, or by postcode if you have not.
2. Make sure it is the right office. Approval sits with an individual office, not the firm as a whole. A practice with branches in three towns may be approved in one of them, so check the one that will actually run your file.
3. Get it in writing, with a date on it. Directories show a position as at a moment in time, and lenders add and remove firms as they see fit. An email from the firm confirming current status, naming the branch, costs nothing and is the thing worth having if anything goes wrong later.

There is no penalty for asking early and every incentive to. Once searches are ordered and fees are paid, a panel problem stops being administrative and starts being expensive.

Why lenders reach different conclusions about the same flat

Approved firms follow the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook. Part 1 applies to everybody. Part 2 is where each lender writes its own rules, on tenure and title, lease terms, deposits, incentives, letting, completion and registration, and it is the reason one bank will happily lend on a property another has turned down.

NatWest is a good illustration. It will consider a freehold flat, which many lenders will not, but it does not lend on commonhold, which plenty of others do. A few of its answers, to give a sense of the ground Part 2 covers:

• Minimum lease term : a formula rather than a fixed figure: the mortgage term plus 30 years. (5.14.1a)
• Freehold flats : considered, where positive covenants can be enforced, with lending capped at 90% of value. (5.7.1b)
• Commonhold : a single word: no. (5.9.1a)
• Houses in multiple occupation : not lent on. (6.6.4a)
• Digital and electronic signatures :not accepted. (3.1.6a)
• Occupier consent : required from everyone aged 17 or over, other than the borrower’s own children under 26. (7.3a)
• Deposits and gifts: gifts from parents and guardians are acceptable, and a second charge in their favour can be agreed. Gifts from other third parties are acceptable only where nothing is repayable. (5.13.1a)
• Incentives :only certain builders’ incentives on new build, reportable where they exceed 5% of the purchase price. (6.4.4a)
• HS2 and mining:proximity to HS2 is reportable inside 300 metres; a mining entry inside 20 metres brings its own insurance condition. (5.4.4a)
• Release of funds: seven working days’ notice, sent electronically. (10.2b)

These are illustrations rather than a full list, taken from the bank’s published Part 2 as at August 2026. Lenders revise these answers without announcing it, which of them apply depends on your transaction, and they are read together with Part 1 and your mortgage offer. Your conveyancer works from the live handbook, put anything here that touches your purchase to them.

What to do if the answer is no

Nothing about this is fatal on its own. It is a question of how much it costs, and that depends almost entirely on when you find out.

Instruct an approved firm instead. Simplest, and cheapest the earlier it happens. If searches are already on order, ask the incoming firm which of them it can take over rather than assuming everything has to be repeated.

Keep your firm and let the bank use its own. Your solicitor continues to act for you while NatWest instructs a panel firm to protect its position. This depends on the bank agreeing to it, and where it is agreed you should expect two sets of costs and a slower timetable.

Ask your firm about joining. A reasonable conversation to have, but not a plan for a transaction that is already running, since nothing about approval is guaranteed or instant.

Questions people ask

Why does NatWest care which solicitor I use?

Because your conveyancer acts for the bank as well as for you. They check the title, the lease and the search results on the bank’s behalf and certify that the property is acceptable security. The panel is how a lender satisfies itself that the firm doing that work meets its standards.

Can I still instruct a firm that is not approved?

You can appoint whoever you like to act for you, but NatWest will not deal with them. In practice the bank instructs its own panel solicitor alongside yours, which generally means two sets of legal fees on one transaction.

Is the panel different for remortgages?

The requirement is the same. Remortgages often move faster than purchases, which cuts both ways — there is less time for a panel problem to surface before a rate deadline arrives.

My solicitor is on another bank’s panel. Does that count?

No. Every lender runs its own panel against its own criteria, so approval by one says nothing about approval by another. It is worth checking against the specific lender named on your mortgage offer.

What is Part 2 of the Lenders’ Handbook?

The lender-specific half of the instructions your conveyancer follows, sitting alongside the Part 1 rules common to everyone. It is amended by lenders without notice, which is why a current answer matters more than a remembered one.

Can a firm be taken off the panel?

Yes, at any time and without warning to you. That is the reason to ask for dated written confirmation rather than rely on a check somebody made a few weeks ago.

Find a conveyancer on the NatWest panel

Free to search, no registration, covering firms across England and Wales. Search the NatWest panel.

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Examples of lender requirements are drawn from National Westminster Bank plc’s Part 2 of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook for England and Wales as published in August 2026, with paragraph numbers given so each can be checked at source. They are illustrative and not a complete statement of the bank’s requirements.

This article is for general information only and is not legal or financial advice. Lender requirements and panel membership can change at any time and without notice. Always confirm your conveyancer’s current panel status, and the bank’s current requirements, before instructing.