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Habito 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 Habito Conveyancing Panel?
Check your firm’s panel Status
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How can my firm be reinstated onto the Habito Conveyancing Panel?
Check your firm’s panel Status

Lexsure’s COMPLETIONmonitor is an online pre- and post-completion checklist for property lawyers. It is supported by PI insurers. It is a unique risk mitigation tool.

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

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

Find a Law Firm approved by Habito

Mortgage companies often change their requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements from Habito 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, Habito has made 14 revisions or additions to sections of their version of the UK Finance Handbook.
That equates to a section change every 195.0 days. In total, 7% of the sections of P2 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Habito have been changed since 15/12/2008.

To find out more about lender panel compliance,
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FAQs for the Habito Conveyancing Panel from members of the public

I am in the process of selling my flat and the estate agent has just called to say that the purchasers are changing their property lawyer. The reason given is that Habito will only work with solicitors on their approved list. On what basis would a big named lender only engage with specific law firms?
Lenders have always had an approved set of law firms they are willing to work with, but in the past few years big names such as Nationwide , have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for more than 15 years.

Lenders point to the increase in fraud as the reason for the cull – criteria have been tightened and a smaller panel should be easier to keep an eye on. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society says it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels, or have other concerns about them. Some do not even realise they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyer’s case. Your purchasers are unlikely to have any sway in the decision.

I am purchasing a newly constructed apartment and my lawyer is advising me that she has to reveal incentives from the developer as her firm is on the Habito conveyancing panel. The Estate Agents are hassling me to sign contracts and my preference is not to prolong deal. Is my lawyer right?
You should not exchange unless you have advised to do so by your lawyer. A precondition to being on the Habito approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Habito). The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
Do all the licensed conveyancers and solicitor practices listed on your search have online case tracking as I understood that this was a condition of being on the Habito conveyancing panel?
No. There is no CML Part 2 or Building Society Association requirement relating to online case tracking. Some law firms operate such technology and some don't.
I am trying to get my ex-husband removed the mortgage deeds. Can Habito really insist on which solicitor I can or can not instruct?
You can use any solicitor you like but Habito then has the right to appoint a different solicitor to act for them at your expense. It might be more cost effective and quicker to instruct a lawyer who is on the Habito solicitors panel
Is it the case that all conveyancing lawyers on the Habito 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 package
We are getting a further advance on our mortgage from Habito as we wish to carry out alterations or improvements our home. Do we need to appoint a solicitor on the Habito conveyancing panel to deal with the legals?
Habito would not normally instruct firms on their conveyancing panel to deal with such a matter. If they did require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Habito list
I am selling my house. I had a double glazing fitted in month 2010 but did not receive a FENSA certificate or Building Regulation Certificate. My buyer's lender, Habito are being problematic. The solicitor who is on the Habito conveyancing panel is saying indemnity insurance will be fine but Habito are insisting on a building regulation certificate. Why do Habito have a conveyancing panel of they don’t accept advice from them?
It is probably the case that Habito have referred the matter to their valuer. The reason why Habito may not want to accept indemnity insurance is because it does not give them any reassurance that the double glazing correctly and safely installed. It merely protects against enforcement action which is very unlikely anyway.

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