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

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

This software is the only way you can prove to lender panels that you are, and can stay fully compliant with their requirements, with alerts on St James Place’s changes. Even though using this technology is not a prerequisite for St James Place , demonstrating you can stay up to date with St James Place’s Handbook requirements is an excellent support to your panel application and, more importantly, safeguard your firm’s panel standing.

COMPLETIONmonitor creates real-time alerts, automatically produces SRA 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 St James Place

Mortgage companies often change their requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements from St James Place 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, St James Place has made 29 revisions or additions to sections of their version of the UK Finance Handbook.
That equates to a section change every 94.1 days. In total, 12% of the sections of P2 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for St James Place have been changed since 15/12/2008.

To find out more about lender panel compliance,
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St James Place Conveyancing Panel : Questions and Answers from members of the public

My Conveyancer has never been on on the St James Place Solicitor Panel. Can I still continue with my family solicitor notwithstanding that they are not on the St James Place panel of approved conveyancing solicitors?
You have a number of options available to you here:
  1. Complete the purchase with your existing solicitors but St James Place will need to instruct a lawyer on the St James Place conveyancing panel. This will result in additional cost and potential delay.
  2. Get a new solicitor to act in the purchase, obviously checking they are on the St James Place conveyancing panel.
  3. Convince your lawyer to do everything within their powers to join the St James Place conveyancing panel
My solicitor has discovered a discrepancy when comparing the surveyor’s assumptions in St James Place’s home valuation survey and what is revealed within the title deeds. My lawyer informs me that as he is on the St James Place conveyancing panel he must check that the lender is OK with this discrepancy and is content go ahead. Is my lawyer’s stance correct?
A precondition to being on the St James Place approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on St James Place) which do require that your lawyer disclose any incorrect assumptions in the lender’s valuation report and the legal papers. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for both parties.
I am buying a flat and require a conveyancing solicitor in Birmingham who is on the St James Place approved. Can you recommend a local firm?
Our service is a directory service for firms who wish to be listed as being on the approved conveyancing panel for St James Place . We don’t recommend any particular firm.
My uncle passed away last year and as sole heir and executor was left the house. The house had a small mortgage remaining of approximately £4500. I want to have the title changed into my name whilst I re-mortgage to St James Place , pay off the mortgage etc. Is this allowed?
If you intend to re-mortgage then St James Place will insist on your using a conveyancer on the St James Place conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your St James Place conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the St James Place mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.
Is the case that all CQS (Conveyancing Quality Scheme) solicitors on the St James Place conveyancing panel?
It is true that some banks and building societies now use the accreditation scheme as the starting point for Panel membership such as HSBC and Santander. CQS accreditation however gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the CML have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for firms wishing to join their approved list of conveyancing solicitors.
We have a mortgage agreed in principle with St James Place. Solicitors have been appointed? How long does it take for St James Place to send the offer to our conveyancer
Some lenders take longer than others. Have St James Place conducted the valuation? Have you advised St James Place as your lawyers details and checked that your lawyer is on the St James Place conveyancing panel? sometimes it can take as long as six weeks for a mortgage offer to be issued
We expect to receive a DIP from St James Place this week so we can work out what to offer on a property we like as otherwise we are dependent on web based calculators (which aren't taking into account credit checks etc).Do the St James Place recommend a solicitor on the St James Place conveyancing panel, or is it better to go independently
You will need to appoint solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the St James Place conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and the St James Place through the process.

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