A mortgage lender’s requirements do not remain fixed. Nationwide Building Society has amended its lender-specific conveyancing instructions repeatedly, meaning that the requirements applying to a purchase completed several years ago may differ materially from those published today.
This distinction becomes important when an earlier transaction is being investigated following a failed sale, remortgage difficulty, complaint, professional-negligence claim or lender file review. The relevant question is not simply what Nationwide requires now. It is what Nationwide’s recorded instructions required at the relevant time.
The Nationwide Lender Handbook Archive enables users to select a historical completion date and examine the Nationwide Building Society mortgage requirements recorded for that point in time.
Why current Nationwide instructions may not answer a historical question
The current UK Finance Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook is designed principally for transactions taking place now. It cannot, by itself, establish the lender-specific wording that appeared in Nationwide’s Part 2 instructions when an older transaction completed.
This matters because lender requirements can be introduced, removed, expanded or relaxed. Reporting obligations may change. A matter that previously required referral might later become acceptable subject to stated conditions, while a feature once accepted may subsequently be treated more cautiously.
Applying today’s requirements retrospectively can therefore produce the wrong conclusion about what a conveyancer was instructed to do on an earlier transaction.
What does the Nationwide Lender Handbook Archive contain?
Lexsure has retained historical Nationwide Building Society mortgage lender requirements from 2008 onwards. The Archive allows the user to choose the relevant date and, where appropriate, identify the property or conveyancing issue being investigated.
The historical topics covered include matters such as:
- defective leases;
- short lease terms;
- ground rent escalation;
- estate rentcharges;
- missing rights and easements;
- absentee freeholders;
- flying freeholds;
- freehold flats;
- Japanese knotweed;
- missing Building Regulations approval;
- missing planning permission;
- service charges and major works; and
- boundary problems.
The purpose is not to reconstruct an earlier requirement from Nationwide’s present position. It is to identify the wording recorded for the relevant historical date.
Nationwide’s leasehold requirements demonstrate why dates matter
Leasehold property provides a particularly clear illustration of the problem.
In 2017, About Conveyancing reported on Nationwide’s changes concerning ground rent, event fees and lease length. The amendments addressed matters including minimum lease terms for certain new-build properties, starting ground rent and potentially unreasonable ground-rent escalation.
That article is useful contemporary evidence of a change reported at the time. It is not, however, a substitute for checking the complete instructions that applied to a different transaction date.
A lease may not have changed since the original purchase, but mortgage-market expectations can change around it. A ground-rent clause, lease term or event fee that did not prevent an earlier mortgage may be questioned when the owner later sells or remortgages.
Equally, the fact that a problem has emerged today does not, by itself, establish that Nationwide held the same position when the property was originally purchased. The historical wording must be established before conclusions are drawn.
Short ownership and back-to-back transactions
Lender instructions can also change in response to transactional risk rather than a physical or legal defect in the property.
Our 2016 article on Nationwide Building Society’s changes to its conveyancing instructions recorded requirements concerning sub-sales, back-to-back transactions and properties owned by the seller for less than six months.
Where an older file involving short ownership is being examined, the relevant historical questions may include:
- what Nationwide required to be reported at that time;
- what information had to accompany a referral;
- whether the lender was notified;
- what response was received;
- whether that response was retained on the conveyancing file; and
- whether any additional conditions were imposed before completion.
Today’s instructions cannot reliably answer those historical questions.
Panel membership and historical requirements are different
A Nationwide conveyancing-panel search answers a current practical question: can a particular firm presently act for Nationwide Building Society?
The Archive answers a different question: what Nationwide mortgage instructions were recorded for the date of an earlier transaction?
Someone choosing a conveyancer for a new purchase or remortgage should read our guide to the Nationwide Building Society conveyancing panel and check the proposed firm’s current position before instructing it.
Someone investigating a transaction that completed years ago may instead need the historical Part 2 requirements applying on the relevant date. Current panel status does not establish what a lender required historically, and a historical Archive record does not confirm whether a particular firm can act for Nationwide today.
When might a historical Nationwide requirement be relevant?
The historical record may assist where:
- a property problem emerges during a later sale or remortgage;
- a buyer’s new lender takes a different position from Nationwide;
- an owner questions why a title or lease issue was not raised when they bought;
- a conveyancing complaint or professional-negligence allegation is being investigated;
- a law firm or professional indemnity insurer is reviewing an earlier file;
- the original conveyancing report is incomplete or unclear; or
- the instructions applying at the time need to be compared with the wider mortgage market.
The lender’s historical requirements are one part of that investigation. The original conveyancing file, mortgage offer, searches, title documents, correspondence, report on title and any referral to Nationwide may also need to be examined.
What can the historical record establish?
A dated Archive record can help establish the Nationwide Building Society Part 2 wording recorded for the selected date. Depending on the issue, it may show whether Nationwide required a matter to be reported, whether stated conditions applied or whether additional evidence was required.
It does not, on its own, prove that a conveyancer complied with the instruction. Nor does it establish that anyone was negligent.
That wider assessment requires consideration of the complete conveyancing file, the scope of the retainer, the information available at the time, the applicable law and professional standards, and the advice given to both borrower and lender.
Check Nationwide’s historical mortgage requirements
If an earlier Nationwide-funded transaction is being investigated, begin with the correct lender and the relevant transaction date. Do not assume that the requirements published today reproduce the position that applied years ago.
This article provides general information only. Mortgage lender requirements can change, and the historical record must be considered alongside the individual conveyancing file and circumstances. Lexsure is independent of Nationwide Building Society and UK Finance.