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Royal Bank of Scotland 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 Royal Bank of Scotland Conveyancing Panel?
Check your firm’s panel Status
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How can my firm be reinstated onto the Royal Bank of Scotland 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 professional indemnity insurers. COMPLETIONmonitor is a unique risk mitigation tool.

This software facilitates the way you can demonstrate to lender panels that you are, and can remain fully compliant with their requirements, with notifications given on Royal Bank of Scotland’s changes. Notwithstanding that using the tool is not a condition for being on the Royal Bank of Scotland panel, demonstrating you can remain up to date with Royal Bank of Scotland’s Handbook requirements is a helpful support to your application to their lender panel and, more importantly, protect your panel standing.

COMPLETIONmonitor creates real-time alerts, automatically produces SRA and CQS reports, and will increase your firm's efficiency. It is also user friendly, cost-effective and, for many firms, leads to reduced PII premiums.

Find a Law Firm approved by Royal Bank of Scotland

Lenders often change their requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements from Royal Bank of Scotland 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, Royal Bank of Scotland has made 989 revisions or additions to sections of their version of the UK Finance Handbook.
That equates to a section change every 2.8 days. In total, 69% of the sections of P2 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Royal Bank of Scotland have been changed since 15/12/2008.

To find out more about lender panel compliance,
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Royal Bank of Scotland Conveyancing Panel : Questions and Answers from members of the public

On what basis could a firm of solicitors be excluded from the Royal Bank of Scotland approved conveyancing panel?
A survey recently commissioned by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority found that three quarters of law firms had been excluded from a lender panel. The top reasons in order are :
  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. We are not aware of the specific or common criteria for removal by Royal Bank of Scotland
Please assist. For no fault of my lawyer but, the conveyancing for my house purchase has been going on for months. The Local Authority Search from Royal Bank of Scotland was issued random date and we have agreed a date for me to move into the property on 6 months + 3. My solicitor has advised that as she is on the Royal Bank of Scotland conveyancing panel she needs to redo the searches as they are now out of date.
A precondition to being on the Royal Bank of Scotland approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Royal Bank of Scotland)which specifies that a local authority search be not more than half a year old. You should nevertheless ask your lawyer to check whether something called ‘search validation’ indemnity insurance is acceptable to Royal Bank of Scotland.
I require the services of a Royal Bank of Scotland panel solicitor in Inverness. Can you assist?
Unfortunately it’s not apparent why you need a Royal Bank of Scotland panel solicitor but in any event, if you can not find one on our search tool you will need to speak directly to Royal Bank of Scotland to find out which solicitors in Royal Bank of Scotland are on their panel. If you do find such a firm not listed please direct them to our site to list. After all the cost is only one £1 a month
What happens if my solicitor is removed from the Royal Bank of Scotland Conveyancing panel in advance of completion?
The first thing to point out is that, this is a very rare occurrence. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have ti instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by the regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit at a cost.
Are all Conveyancing Quality Solicitors on the Royal Bank of Scotland conveyancing panel?
It is true that some lenders now use CQS as the starting point for Panel approval such as HSBC and Santander. CQS membership however gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for firms wishing to remain on their approved list of firms.
When it comes to lenders such as Royal Bank of Scotland do lawyers have to be pay a fee to be on the conveyancing panel?
We are not aware of any lender fees to be on their panel although some do charge an administration charge to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel application.
Royal Bank of Scotland have agreed my mortgage in principle, my offer on house has been accepted, now what?
The estate agent will want to know who your solicitors are (make sure these solicitors are on the lenders panel). Call up Royal Bank of Scotland or your broker and complete any relevant paperwork. Royal Bank of Scotland will tell you what documents they want. Royal Bank of Scotland will instruct a valuer. The valuer will get in touch with the estate agent or seller to book an appointment. Once conducted (assuming no problems) it takes about week to get a mortgage offer. Royal Bank of Scotland will issue the offer to you and your lawyer. The transaction will then take it’s course according the nature and complexity of the conveyancing.

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