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RBS- First Active Conveyancing Lender Panel Compliance Tool

Looking for information about your firm's panel status?

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Halifax Conveyancing Panel?
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COMPLETIONmonitor is an online pre- and post-completion checklist for property lawyers. Supported by the Council of Mortgage Lenders and professional indemnity insures. COMPLETIONmonitor is a unique risk management tool.

This software optimises the way you can prove to lender panels that you are, and can remain fully compliant with their instructions, with automatic updates on RBS- First Active’s changes. Notwithstanding that utilising the tool is not a condition for acceptance on the RBS- First Active panel, demonstrating you can remain up to date with RBS- First Active’s Handbook requirements is an excellent support to your panel application and, just as importantly, protect your firm’s panel status.

The system creates real-time alerts, automatically produces compliance and CQS reports, and will improve your firm's efficiency. It is also simply to use, cost-effective and, for some firms, results in a PII saving.

Find a Law Firm approved by RBS- First Active

Lenders frequently change their requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements from RBS- First Active 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 2008, RBS- First Active has made 184 revisions or additions to sections of their version of the CML Handbook.
That equates to a section change every 14.8 days. In total, 49% of the sections of P2 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for RBS- First Active have been changed since 15/12/2008.

To find out more about lender panel compliance,
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FAQs for the RBS- First Active Solicitor Panel from members of the public

I have been advised by my broker that I have to pay RBS- First Active fees should I instruct my family lawyer. How good are the RBS- First Active conveyancing panel solicitors? I'm happy to use any solicitor in the country TBH provided that they are good and reasonably priced. Are there any RBS- First Active conveyancers you'd recommend?
RBS- First Active’s conveyancing panel is substantial so your best bet is just to check with the firms you are getting quotes from that they are on the panel. You can search by postcode on the search tool on this site to find solicitors that RBS- First Active will allow to act for them.
Can you clarify something for me?. My lawyer is not to blame but, the conveyancing for my house purchase has been going on for months. The Local Authority Search from RBS- First Active was date stamped random date and we have agreed a date for me to move into the property on 6 months + 3. My lawyer says that as she is on the RBS- First Active conveyancing panel she needs to reorder the searches as they are no longer acceptable to the lender.
A precondition to being on the RBS- First Active approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook Part 2 obligations (last updated for this lender on RBS- First Active)which specifies that a local authority search be not more than 6 months old. You should nevertheless ask your lawyer to check whether something called ‘search validation’ indemnity insurance is acceptable to RBS- First Active.
What tools are available to search for a local solicitor on the RBS- First Active conveyancing panel? I have a car and am prepared to travel up to 25 kilometers to meet the solicitor.
Feel free to make use of the find a conveyancing panel tool on this website. Please choose the lender and your location and you will see a number of lawyer located nearest you. Alternatively you can type in the name of your proposed law firm and see if they are listed as being on the RBS- First Active solicitor panel.
I am buying a semi-detached house and getting a mortgage with RBS- First Active. Can I do my own conveyancing?
Leaving aside the complexities and merits of DIY conveyancing you will have to appoint a solicitor on the RBS- First Active conveyancing panel to look after their interests. Most people therefore find it easier to let the solicitor act for them and the lender. Furthermore there is minimal cost savings to made in you doing to conveyancing for yourself and another lawyer conducting the conveyancing for the lender. Please feel free to use the search tool to find a lawyer on the RBS- First Active conveyancing panel in your location.
Do conveyancing solicitors on the RBS- First Active conveyancing panel work on a no move no charge basis?
On the whole there are no requirements by lenders for their firms to operate on a no-sale-no-fee basis. There a small number of lenders who operate a very restricted conveyancing panel managed by a third party company (often termed in the industry as a ‘gatekeeper’). That third party may impose certain conditions such as non-sale-no fee on the panel firms. If you require this as a condition of your conveyancing then you should check with the conveyancing firm that this is part of their service
On the whole I have been dissatisfied with the level or service received from my lawyer. Is there a RBS- First Active conveyancing panel complaints department or do I complain directly to the law firm?
There is little point in complaining directly to RBS- First Active. All solicitors and conveyancer must have a complaints procedure. You can get information from the solicitor’s or conveyancer’s website or ask at their office. They must tell you about it if you ask.

The Legal Ombudsman will make sure that your complaint is addressed by the solicitor. It can also advise you how to complain.

If a licensed conveyancer does not have a complaints procedure or will not tell you about it, contact the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), which will make sure that your complaint is properly dealt with by the conveyancer. Please see below for more information.

My offer was accepted on an apartment on the 6th March 2014, valuation was booked five days later, received a clean bill of health. Solicitor retained, so all that was missing was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to RBS- First Active and chasing them on my offer I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the RBS- First Active conveyancing panel. Can the lender hold off the offer?
A lender would not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for RBS- First Active to deal with your lawyers application to be on the RBS- First Active conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitors will be accepted.

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