Mortgage Express Conveyancing Lender Panel Compliance Tool

COMPLETIONmonitor is an online pre- and post-completion checklist for property lawyers. Supported by the CML and professional indemnity insures. It is a unique risk management tool.

This software assists the way you can prove to lender panels that you are, and can remain fully compliant with their requirements, with automatic updates on Mortgage Express’s changes. While using this technology is not a condition for acceptance on the Mortgage Express panel, demonstrating you can stay up to date with Mortgage Express’s Handbook requirements is a helpful support to your panel application and, more importantly, safeguard your firm’s panel standing.

COMPLETIONmonitor generates real-time alerts, automatically produces SRA and CQS reports, and will enhance your firm's efficiency. It is also simply to use, cost-effective and, for some firms, results in a PII saving.

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Banks and building societies frequently change their requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements from Mortgage Express 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, Mortgage Express has made 138 revisions or additions to sections of their version of the CML Handbook.
That equates to a section change every 19.8 days. In total, 35% of the sections of P2 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Mortgage Express have been changed since 15/12/2008.

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Mortgage Express (No 2) Conveyancing Panel Sample Enquires to our Call Center from members of the public

I am selling my maisonette and the estate agent has just called to advise that the purchasers are changing their solicitor. The excuse is that Mortgage Express (No 2) will only engage with solicitors on their approved list. Why would a major lender only deal with specific lawyers?
Banks 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 Santander, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for more than 25 years.

Lenders point to the increase in fraud by way of justification 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.

My son is in the process of securing a new build apartment with a mortgage from Mortgage Express (No 2). His conveyancer has said that there is a delay in completing the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. This document is news to me - what is it and who needs sight of it?
The form is intended to provide information to the main parties engaged in the transaction. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Mortgage Express (No 2) conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the valuer when requested.

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 Mortgage Express (No 2) conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.

Do all the firms listed on your directory have online case tracking as I understood that this was a condition of being on the Mortgage Express (No 2) solicitor 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.
My solicitors in London have advised me that they can not locate my conveyancing file. At the time of my purchase I took out a mortgage with Mortgage Express (No 2). Is it case that being on the Mortgage Express (No 2) conveyancing panel they need to have retained the file for a prescribed period?
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 Mortgage Express (No 2) Conveyancing Panel Terms. It might be worth you contacting Mortgage Express (No 2) directly.
Is there a list of Mortgage Express (No 2) panel solicitors on the CML Handbook 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.
I am about to exchange contracts on a purchase with a mortgage from Mortgage Express (No 2). The report from my solicitor mentions that Mortgage Express (No 2) could withdraw their offer before completion. Is this right?
Banks and Building Societies such as Mortgage Express (No 2) can revoke their mortgage offer although this rarely happens. In the unlikely event that Mortgage Express (No 2) withdraw their offer they may or may not inform you or the lawyer as to the reasons why. There are various possible reasons but here are a number of examples:
  • Situations where information provided by the borrower that enabled the lender to make a lending decision is fraudulent, incorrect or misleading.
  • Where the purchase price and borrowers direct contribution differ to details on the mortgage application form completed by the borrower
  • Where the sale is not at arms length for value to unconnected persons
  • Where the Lender’s right to possession is fettered in some way
  • If the solicitor on the Mortgage Express (No 2) conveyancing panel acting for the applicant, borrower, mortgagor or guarantor cannot comply with Mortgage Express (No 2) ‘s instructions
I recently had an offer accepted on a house. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their lawyers I paid an upfront payment of 150. Soon after the conveyancers contacted me to say that they were not on the Mortgage Express (No 2) conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Mortgage Express (No 2) panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.