Astra Mortgages Conveyancing Lender Panel Compliance Tool

Lexsure’s COMPLETIONmonitor is web-based pre- and post-completion checklist for property lawyers. Supported by the CML and PI insurers such as AmTrust. It is a unique risk mitigation tool.

This system optimises the way you can demonstrate to lender panels that you are, and can stay fully compliant with their requirements, with notifications given on Astra Mortgages’s changes. Even though utilising the tool is not a condition for acceptance on the Astra Mortgages panel, demonstrating you can remain up to date with Astra Mortgages’s Handbook requirements is an excellent support to your application to their lender panel and, more importantly, protect your firm’s panel status.

COMPLETIONmonitor creates real-time alerts, automatically produces SRA and CQS reports, and will improve your firm's efficiency. It is also simply to use, cost-effective and, for many firms, leads to a PII saving.

Find a Law Firm approved by Astra Mortgages

Lenders often change their requirements. The BSA instructions from Astra Mortgages are not guidelines, they are instructions from a client. As with many clients, instructions can change - and they do change, over time:

A Timeline of Policy Changes


Since 2010, Astra Mortgages has made 59 revisions or additions to sections of their version of the BSA Requirements.
That equates to a section change every 46.3 days. In total, 49% of the sections of the BSA Requirements for Astra Mortgages have been changed since 26/1/2010.

To find out more about lender panel compliance,

Book a Personalised Demo

Examples of recent questions relating to the ASTRA mortgages Conveyancing Panel from members of the public

My Conveyancer is not on the ASTRA mortgages Approved Panel. Is it possible for me to retain my family solicitor notwithstanding that they are not on the ASTRA mortgages panel of approved conveyancing solicitors?
You have a number of options available to you here:
  1. Complete the purchase with your preferred solicitors but ASTRA mortgages will need to instruct a lawyer on the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel. This will result in additional cost and potential delay.
  2. Get a new solicitor to act in the purchase, obviously checking they are on the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel.
  3. Urge your lawyer to apply to join the ASTRA mortgages lender panel
Our son-in-law is purchasing a newly built flat with a home loan from ASTRA mortgages. His conveyancer has advised him of a delay in completing the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. Who needs to receive the form?
The form is intended to provide information to the main parties involved in the purchase. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the surveyor when asked.

The Developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it.

The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.

Your search tool is useful but there are many lawyers listed near Middlesbrough on the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel. It would be a lot more helpful if you could recommend a specific firm on the ASTRA mortgages approved panel?
We do not recommend specific firms as the right firm for you depends on where your priorities lie. For example you may require a local firm with local knowledge or you might be looking for the low cost conveyancing. Before you appoint your lawyer we advise you to speak to two or three of the firms listed to gain comfort as to which one is right for you..
Please explain the implications if my solicitor is suspended from the ASTRA mortgages Conveyancing panel before the completion date?
First, this is a very rare occurrence. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have ti instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by the regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit for a fee.
I had instructed online conveyancers based in Bristol who are on the ASTRA mortgages solicitor panel. They are now charging me a separate fee of £150 for the legal aspects of the ASTRA mortgages mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee specified by ASTRA mortgages?
Unfortunately, as long as it is in their Terms and Conditions or Quote then yes your solicitors can charge a fee for this. This fee is not set by ASTRA mortgages but by your lawyers. Some firms on the ASTRA mortgages will charge an ‘acting for lender’ fee but plenty of firms include it on their overall fee.
Do the majority of lenders operate their own panel of solicitors?
Many lenders do operate a restricted conveyancing panel but a lot of lenders allow any solicitors to join their panel so long as they meet their criteria. Each lender sets their own criteria. For example the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel requirements are different to ASTRA mortgages’s conveyancing panel requirements.
I am buying a property where the roof has a solar panel. Solicitors conducting should look into this right? Will my lender ASTRA mortgages be concerned
Given that your lender is ASTRA mortgages your lawyer must to check the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing instructions contained in the Part of CML Handbook for ASTRA mortgages . The CML Handbook contains minimum requirements for solar panel roof-space leases, and solicitors are required to report to ASTRA mortgages where a lease does not meet these requirements. The requirements relate to the installation of panels on properties in England and Wales. Requirements for Scotland are due in the near future.