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Astra Mortgages Conveyancing Lender Panel Compliance Tool

Looking for information about your firm's panel status?

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How can my firm apply to be on the Astra Mortgages Conveyancing Panel?
Check your firm’s panel Status
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How can my firm be reinstated onto the Astra Mortgages Conveyancing Panel?
Check your firm’s panel Status

Lexsure’s COMPLETIONmonitor is web-based pre- and post-completion checklist for residential conveyancing lawyers. It is supported by professional indemnity insurers. COMPLETIONmonitor is a unique risk management tool.

This system is the only way you can demonstrate to lender panels that you are, and can stay fully compliant with their instructions, with alerts on Astra Mortgages’s changes. While utilising COMPLETIONmonitor is not a prerequisite for Astra Mortgages , 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, just as importantly, safeguard your firm’s panel standing.

COMPLETIONmonitor creates real-time alerts, automatically produces compliance and CQS reports, and will enhance your firm's efficiency. In addition it is user friendly, cost-effective and, for some firms, leads to a PII saving.

Find a Law Firm approved by Astra Mortgages

Lenders often vary 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 61 revisions or additions to sections of their version of the BSA Requirements.
That equates to a section change every 44.8 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,
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ASTRA mortgages Conveyancing Panel : Questions and Answers from members of the public

I am obtaining a offer of a mortgage from ASTRA mortgages. my intention is to use a Licensed Conveyancer. Does the ASTRA mortgages Solicitor panel allow for Licensed Conveyancers
ASTRA mortgages’s approved solicitor list is, like many other lenders associated to the CML or BSA, open to Licensed Conveyancers regulated by the CLC.
My conveyancer has discovered a difference between the surveyor’s assumptions in ASTRA mortgages’s valuation report and what is revealed within the title deeds. My solicitor says that as he is on the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel he is obliged to ensure that the lender is OK with this discrepancy and is still content to lend. Is my lawyer’s approach appropriate?
A precondition to being on the ASTRA mortgages approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on ASTRA mortgages) which do require that your lawyer disclose any incorrect assumptions in the lender’s valuation report and the legal papers. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for both parties.
I am Googling for competitive conveyancing fees. Can I be sure that all the practices that are identified on your website are on the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel?
The solicitor and licensed conveyancing practices on our directory have assured us via an online form that they are on the ASTRA mortgages panel and agreed to advise us to take down their listing in the event of removal off of the ASTRA mortgages panel. To date we have not been informed by either a bank or a member of the public that the data about a specific firm being on the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel is not accurate.
My solicitors in Birmingham have advised me that no longer have my conveyancing file. To assist with my purchase I took out a mortgage with ASTRA mortgages. Is it case that being on the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel they need to have retained the file for a number of years?
Different lenders have different requirements but many of the Terms and Conditions of Conveyancing Panel Appointment require the file to be held for a period of 6 years. That being said we have not seen a copy of the ASTRA mortgages Conveyancing Panel Terms. It might be worth you contacting ASTRA mortgages directly.
Can you point me to a directory of ASTRA mortgages panel solicitors on the Building Society Association’s Website?
No. There is no such tool on the Council of Mortgage Lenders or Building Society Association websites. Very few lenders make their panel listings available online.
In what circumstances might ASTRA mortgages amend or withdraw their mortgage offer?
Lenders such as ASTRA mortgages can revoke their mortgage offer although this rarely happens. If ASTRA mortgages withdraw their offer they may or may not inform you or the lawyer as to their reasoning. There are many potential reasons but here are a number of examples:
  • Where information comes to ASTRA mortgages ‘s attention regarding the customers or the security that they were not aware of prior to offer that affects their original decision to lend
  • If the borrower informs ASTRA mortgages of a change in security address
  • Amendments if purchase price adjusted and the loan to value limits exceeded by this. Please note that ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel solicitors would be obliged to notify ASTRA mortgages of a change in the price of the property.
  • A cashback to the buyer, or | part of the price includes a non-cash incentive to the buyer (eg paid stamp duty land tax),or | any indirect incentive (cash or non cash) or rental guarantee, of which the lender was previously unaware
  • Situations where information provided by the borrower that enabled the lender to make a lending decision is fraudulent, incorrect or misleading.
We have had an offer accepted on a apartment I spoke to a solicitor recommended by my dad and he suggested retaining a solicitor approved by ASTRA mortgages. The estate agent recommended two local firms so I asked ASTRA mortgages if the 2 suggested solicitors are approved, which they are not. ASTRA mortgages pointed out that either firm can fill out the appropriate forms to become approved. Do I (1) save myself the aggravation and use one of ASTRA mortgages 's conveyancing panel solicitors (2) Use the local solicitor and accept there may be delays etc as they go through the approval process.
Enquire of ASTRA mortgages to suggest a law firm in your location. Lenders have them all over the country. You can also use our search tool at the top of this page to search for a lawyer on the ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel based on location. If you particularly like the sound of one of the local lawyers that you have spoken to ask them if they would go onto ASTRA mortgages conveyancing panel as it may only take about 2-3 weeks. As long as they meet ASTRA mortgages’s requirements it can be a very simple job for the solicitor. Other stuff will be going on in parallel (as you are at an early stage) so it may not delay matters.