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Tag: LenderPanel.com

  • Conveyancing Marketing: Take Control as Mortgage Approvals Fall

    The August 2026 mortgage figures give conveyancing firms a reason to look closely at their marketing and future instructions.

    According to the Bank of England, seasonally adjusted mortgage approvals for house purchases fell to approximately 54,900 in August, compared with 55,900 in July and an average of around 60,100 over the preceding six months. The effective interest rate on newly drawn mortgages also increased, from 4.45% in July to 4.60% in August.

    Mortgage approvals are an indicator of future borrowing rather than a count of completed transactions. Nevertheless, the figures suggest a weaker flow of mortgage-backed purchases at a time when firms need to maintain their conveyancing pipelines.

    For managing partners, the commercial question is straightforward: can your firm continue to rely on the same sources of instructions that served it well in a busier market?

    Estate agent referrals face the same market pressures

    Many conveyancing practices have built strong businesses through relationships with local estate agents. Those relationships deserve attention and investment.

    But even an enthusiastic estate agent cannot refer a sale that has not been agreed.

    Where an agent is agreeing fewer transactions, the pool of potential conveyancing referrals can shrink. Your firm may remain the agent’s preferred conveyancer and still receive fewer instructions.

    That creates a particular vulnerability for practices dependent on a small number of introducers. Their future workload rests partly on another business’s ability to generate its own pipeline.

    A quieter market therefore calls for a broader approach to conveyancing marketing, with the firm taking greater responsibility for generating enquiries directly.

    Give prospective clients another way to find your firm

    A law firm cannot control national mortgage demand. It can influence where prospective clients discover it, how clearly it explains its services and how quickly it responds when someone requests a quotation.

    Useful website content, clear contact details, recommendations from former clients and visibility in relevant searches all contribute to that effort.

    One particularly relevant point of discovery is the moment a buyer asks:

    “Which conveyancing firm can act for my mortgage lender?”

    This is a practical selection question. The buyer needs to identify a firm capable of handling the proposed mortgage transaction, then establish its fees, availability and service.

    Our guide to checking whether a solicitor is on a lender’s panel explains why this question should be addressed before a firm is instructed.

    Make lender panel membership work harder for your practice

    Firms invest time and resources in obtaining and maintaining lender panel membership. Making that coverage visible to prospective clients gives the investment a commercial purpose alongside its operational importance.

    LENDERpanel.com enables consumers to search for conveyancing firms by mortgage lender and location, then contact a listed firm directly. Its directory covers more than 130 lender panels.

    The opportunity comes from the relevance of the search. A buyer looking for a conveyancer who can act for a named lender has a specific requirement that your firm may be able to meet.

    For example, our articles on the Halifax conveyancing panel and choosing a solicitor for a Barclays mortgage explain why a general recommendation or an attractive quotation does not, by itself, establish that a firm can represent the lender.

    A listing helps prospective clients discover firms according to that lender requirement. The firm should then confirm its current panel position for the particular office and transaction.

    Why consider a LENDERpanel.com listing?

    For firms seeking an additional source of conveyancing enquiries, LENDERpanel offers several practical advantages:

    • Relevant visibility: listings connect a firm’s lender panel coverage with consumers searching for a suitable conveyancer.
    • Direct contact: prospective clients can approach the firm without an estate agent making the introduction.
    • Location-based discovery: firms can be found through searches relating to the areas covered by their listing.
    • Published subscription options: the registration page sets out plans according to lender panel coverage, with monthly subscriptions and cancellation available at any time.

    LENDERmonitor.com also offers lender and location searches powered by LENDERpanel, alongside its lender information resources.

    For a practice whose instructions have historically depended heavily on local introducers, these services provide an opportunity to develop a broader mix of enquiry sources.

    Visibility needs a clear response process

    A listing creates an opportunity to be found. The firm’s response helps determine whether an enquiry becomes an instruction.

    Keep contact details and lender panel information accurate. Allocate responsibility for responding to enquiries, explain fees clearly and give prospective clients a realistic account of availability and next steps.

    Measure results through enquiries received, quotations issued, matters opened and the value of the work generated. That gives partners a practical basis for assessing marketing expenditure.

    Review where your next instructions will come from

    The August figures are a useful prompt to examine the resilience of your conveyancing pipeline.

    How much work depends on a handful of estate agents? How easily can prospective clients discover which lenders your firm can act for? Are online enquiries answered promptly?

    Established referral relationships remain valuable. Developing additional routes to clients gives the firm more influence over its own business development when those relationships produce fewer opportunities.

    Take control of your conveyancing enquiries

    Help prospective clients find your firm when they search for a conveyancer who can act for their mortgage lender. Make your lender panel coverage part of your business development strategy.

    Explore LENDERpanel.com’s listing options and give buyers another route to contact your firm directly.

    Explore LENDERpanel listing options →

    Market data source: Bank of England, Money and Credit – August 2026, published on 29 September 2026.

  • Estate Agent Regulation Could Change How Conveyancing Firms Win Work

    The government’s announcement that it intends to introduce independent regulation of property agents has prompted a familiar question for conveyancing firms: could closer oversight of estate agents also change the way conveyancing referrals work?

    Recent coverage in the industry press captures the possible connection. A reader’s comment raises whether referral payments steering consumers to a particular conveyancer could be phased out or banned, while recognising that no such policy has yet been announced.

    The short answer is that referral fees have not been banned, and the government has not announced a ban. But the direction of travel is worth watching. Estate-agent regulation is being developed while conveyancing referral arrangements are already under review. For firms that depend heavily on agent introductions, this is a sensible moment to consider how resilient that source of work is.

    Could prospective clients find your firm through lender-panel searches?

    When a buyer has a mortgage, panel membership can affect which conveyancer they can use. LenderPanel.com gives conveyancing firms a way to appear in lender and location searches used by buyers looking for a firm that can act for their mortgage lender.

    What has the government announced?

    The government says it intends to introduce independent regulation of property agents. Its announcement refers to licensing and qualifications, standards of conduct, complaint handling and the possibility of agents losing their licence if they fail to meet the required standards. The government has said that further information will follow.

    The detail and timetable still matter. The government’s home-buying reform roadmap sets out a non-statutory Code of Practice for property agents in 2026 and a consultation on mandatory qualifications in 2027. It says legislation on qualifications would depend on the outcome of that consultation. The new regulatory framework is therefore a direction of travel, not a finished set of rules governing referrals.

    Referral arrangements are already being examined

    This debate is not starting from scratch. The Council for Licensed Conveyancers has begun a thematic review of conveyancing referral arrangements. Its chief executive has said that telling consumers about a referral payment only after they reach the conveyancer may be too late, and that regulation of estate agents could help address the problem. The CLC review is examining information held about firms’ referral arrangements.

    The government’s home-buying consultation also recorded responses calling for estate agents to disclose referral fees, with some respondents saying fees should be reasonable or capped. That evidence shows the issue is part of the policy discussion. It does not show that a ban or cap has been decided.

    So the careful conclusion is not that estate-agent regulation will inevitably end conveyancing referral fees. It is that a regulated agent may face closer scrutiny over how a recommendation is made, what financial interest sits behind it, and whether a consumer understands that interest before choosing a conveyancer.

    Referral fees are not automatically improper

    It is important to distinguish a disclosed commercial referral arrangement from hidden payments, pressure to use a particular firm, or a recommendation that is not in the client’s interests. Calling every referral payment a “kickback” blurs those differences and risks overstating the current position.

    For SRA-regulated firms, the SRA’s guidance requires firms to consider transparency, client interests and independence. It says clients must be informed about fee-sharing arrangements and financial interests, and that firms must be able to show that a referral arrangement does not compromise their advice. Read the SRA’s guidance on referral fees and its principles. CLC-regulated firms have their own regulatory framework, and the CLC is conducting the thematic review noted above.

    The regulatory question is therefore not simply whether money changes hands. It is whether the arrangement is transparent, fair to the client, and compatible with the conveyancer’s duty to give independent advice.

    Why firms that rely on referrals should pay attention

    A firm that receives much of its new conveyancing work through estate agents may be exposed to changes in an introducer’s business model, disclosure practices or willingness to recommend particular firms. Even if referral fees remain lawful, more transparency could affect how consumers respond to recommendations and how agents structure their relationships with conveyancers.

    That does not make estate-agent referrals inherently wrong or commercially unsound. Many conveyancing firms have built successful relationships with local agents. The business risk is concentration: if a firm depends on a small number of introducers, a change in one relationship can have a disproportionate effect on new instructions.

    We wrote about the limits of relying on word-of-mouth referrals in Why Conveyancers Can’t Rely on Referrals. The point remains relevant: a firm benefits from having more than one reliable way for prospective clients to discover and choose it.

    A different route: being visible when borrowers check their lender’s panel

    One practical route is to help buyers find the firm when they are looking for a conveyancer who can act for their mortgage lender. LenderPanel.com lets users search by lender and location. Its solicitor information describes monthly subscription listings, direct lead enquiries and no per-lead charge on its standard plan. Firms can review the current LenderPanel options here.

    This is a different kind of marketing from paying an estate agent for an introduction. It gives firms a way to improve their visibility to people already checking lender-panel status, while leaving the prospective client to contact the firm directly. It is not a guarantee of a particular volume of enquiries, and a directory listing should sit alongside a firm’s other marketing and business-development work.

    Our earlier guide, How to Check if a Solicitor is on a Lender’s Panel (And Why it Matters), explains why borrowers need to check panel status before instructing a conveyancer and how LenderPanel.com can help them search.

    Prepare for scrutiny, not a ban that has not been announced

    The government has not announced that conveyancing referral fees will end. The more supportable point is that estate-agent regulation could bring the agent’s side of referral arrangements into sharper focus, at the same time as the CLC reviews arrangements within the conveyancing profession.

    Firms that rely on referrals should keep their arrangements under review, make sure clients receive clear information, and consider whether they have other dependable ways to attract instructions. For firms seeking to reach buyers who are checking mortgage-lender panel membership, LenderPanel.com is one available marketing channel.