Chelsea Building Society Conveyancing Lender Panel Compliance Tool

COMPLETIONmonitor is web-based pre- and post-completion checklist for residential conveyancing lawyers. Supported by the Council of Mortgage Lenders and professional indemnity insures. It is a unique risk mitigation tool.

This system facilitates the way you can demonstrate to lender panels that you are, and can stay fully compliant with their instructions, with notifications given on Chelsea Building Society’s changes. While utilising COMPLETIONmonitor is not a condition for being on the Chelsea Building Society panel, demonstrating you can stay up to date with Chelsea Building Society’s Handbook requirements is a helpful support to your panel application and, just as importantly, safeguard your panel standing.

The system 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 many firms, results in reduced PII premiums.

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Mortgage companies frequently change their requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements from Chelsea Building Society are not guidelines, they are instructions from a client. As with many clients, instructions can change - and they do change, frequently:

A Timeline of Policy Changes


Since 2008, Chelsea Building Society has made 371 revisions or additions to sections of their version of the CML Handbook.
That equates to a section change every 7.4 days. In total, 33% of the sections of P2 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Chelsea Building Society have been changed since 15/12/2008.

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FAQs : The Chelsea Building Society Conveyancing Panel from members of the public

Is the fact that my conveyancer is not isted on the Chelsea Building Society Conveyancing panel that there is a problem with the standard of the firm’s work?
That would more than likely be a wrong assumption to make. There are all sorts of perfectly reasonable explanations. A recent report by the solicitors regulator indicated 76% of law firms surveyed had been removed from at least one lender panel. The top 3 reasons are as follows: (1) lack of transactions (2) the lawyer is a sole practitioner (3) as part of the HSBC panel reduction (4) regulatory contact by SRA (5) accidental removal. If you are concerned you should simply call the firm and ask them why they are no longer on the approved list for Chelsea Building Society.
Much to my surprise my property lawyer has requested from me identification documents saying that this is part of his legal duty as a conveyancer on the Chelsea Building Society Conveyancing panel. Is this right?
Anti-terror and anti-money-laundering rules require solicitors and licensed conveyancers to verify the identity of the person or body they are dealing with before they can accept their conveyancing business. The Client Care letter that you need to sign will no doubt confirm this. Your lawyer is right that Chelsea Building Society also require certain documents to be viewed. If a you refuse to provide ID verification documents, your conveyancer would not be able to accept instructions from you. Your lawyer also has obligations to obtain certain documents in accordance with Chelsea Building Society CML Handbook requirements last updated on Chelsea Building Society
I require the services of a Chelsea Building Society panel solicitor in Inverness. Could you help me?
Unfortunately it’s not apparent why you need a Chelsea Building Society panel solicitor but in any event, if you can not find one on our search tool you will need to speak directly to Chelsea Building Society to find out which solicitors in Chelsea Building Society are on their panel. If you do find such a firm not listed please direct them to our site to list. At a fee of one pound per month it is not expensive to register on the site
My house is up for sale and I have a buyer. Does my solicitor have to be on the Chelsea Building Society conveyancing panel in order to deal with redeeming my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Chelsea Building Society conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. it might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently at the moment.
Do most 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 Chelsea Building Society conveyancing panel requirements are different to Chelsea Building Society’s conveyancing panel requirements.
I am about to exchange contracts on a purchase with a mortgage from Chelsea Building Society. The report from my solicitor mentions that Chelsea Building Society could withdraw their offer before completion. Is this right?
Lenders such as Chelsea Building Society can withdraw their mortgage offer although this rarely happens. If Chelsea Building Society withdraw their offer they may or may not inform you or the lawyer as to the reasons why. There are many potential reasons but here are a number of examples:
  • If the financial circumstances of the borrower have changed to the detriment and the Chelsea Building Society has been notified
  • 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
  • Where the purchase price and borrowers direct contribution differ to details on the mortgage application form completed by the borrower
  • Following advice from the property assessor on their lender panel or If the lender has doubts about the effectiveness of the valuation as a result of subsequent events or information received post valuation but pre completion
  • Where the Lender’s right to possession is fettered in some way
The mortgage over my property is with Chelsea Building Society. Conveyancing has been completed 12 months ago. If I am intending to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Chelsea Building Society?
Chelsea Building Society must be informed of your intention prior to letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Chelsea Building Society’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Chelsea Building Society directly. You need not do this via a Chelsea Building Society conveyancing panel lawyer.