Yorkshire Building Society Conveyancing Lender Panel Compliance Tool

COMPLETIONmonitor is web-based pre- and post-completion checklist for property lawyers. Supported by the Council of Mortgage Lenders and PI insurers such as AmTrust. It is a unique risk management 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 Yorkshire Building Society’s changes. Even though using the tool is not a prerequisite for Yorkshire Building Society , demonstrating you can stay up to date with Yorkshire Building Society’s Handbook requirements is a helpful support to your application to their lender panel and, more importantly, protect your panel status.

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 a PII saving.

Find a Law Firm approved by Yorkshire Building Society

Lenders frequently change their requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements from Yorkshire Building Society 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, Yorkshire Building Society has made 258 revisions or additions to sections of their version of the CML Handbook.
That equates to a section change every 10.6 days. In total, 42% of the sections of P2 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Yorkshire Building Society have been changed since 15/12/2008.

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Recent Changes Include

# Date Assoc. Changes Related To
6.7.1 30/09/2019 CML
New Build Conveyancing
Yorkshire Building Society panel conveyancer requirements for New Build Conveyancing : Home Warranty Schemes
16.3.2 20/07/2015 CML
Transfer of Equity
Yorkshire Building Society details for requesting debt amount
10.2a 01/12/2014 CML
Mortgage Advance and Certificate of Title
Do Yorkshire Building Society send the mortgage advance electronically or by cheque?
16.3.2 01/12/2014 CML
Transfer of Equity
Yorkshire Building Society details for requesting debt amount
17.2.1a 01/12/2014 CML
Redemption Payments
Where do solicitors and conveyancers send the discharge and repayment remittance in relation to Yorkshire Building Society mortgages ?
6.14.1c 01/12/2014 CML
buildings insurance total sum insured calculation
5.2.1 01/12/2014 CML
Seller not registered
Contact details at Yorkshire Building Society for approved lawyers for where the seller is not the owner or registered proprietor and is not listed in the exceptions in the CML Handbook P1.
3.1.3 01/12/2014 CML
Conveyancing Solicitors Details for Sellers
Do Yorkshire Building Society require notification form their panel lawyer of the name and address of the solicitors firm or licensed conveyancers firm acting for the seller?
5.4.5 16/08/2013 CML
Conveyancing Searches: Personal Searches
Yorkshire Building Society approved lawyers clarification as to whether they accept personal searches and, if yes, the Yorkshire Building Society requirements
Local Search Indemnity Insurance
17.2.1b 12/07/2013 CML
Evidence of Discharge of Mortgage
Do Yorkshire Building Society send the discharge via a DS 1 form or direct with the Land Registry?

Last update 13/11/2019

FAQs : The Yorkshire Building Society Solicitor Panel from members of the public

What is the rationale as to why all solicitors aren't included on the Yorkshire Building Society Conveyancing panel?
Yorkshire Building Society and other mortgage companies ordinarily imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing solicitors on their approved list of lawyers. A common example of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that Yorkshire Building Society have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Yorkshire Building Society Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, Conveyancing is not their speciality? To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime; probably not.
My lawyer has spotted a difference between the information in Yorkshire Building Society’s valuation survey and what is in the legal papers for the property. My solicitor says that as he is on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel he needs to check that the lender is with this discrepancy and is content go ahead. Is my conveyancer’s course or action legitimate?
A precondition to being on the Yorkshire Building Society approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Yorkshire Building Society) 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.
Are the lawyers identified as being on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by Yorkshire Building Society?
The law firm practices themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Yorkshire Building Society directly.
My house is up for sale and I have a buyer. Does my solicitor have to be on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel in order to deal with redeeming my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. it might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently at the moment.
I previously instructed online conveyancers located in Cardiff who are on the Yorkshire Building Society solicitor panel. They have just invoiced me a separate fee of £175 for dealing with the Yorkshire Building Society mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee specified by Yorkshire Building Society?
Unfortunately, as long as it is in their Terms and Conditions or Quote then yes your solicitors can charge a fee for this. This fee is not set by Yorkshire Building Society but by your lawyers. Some firms on the Yorkshire Building Society will charge an ‘acting for lender’ fee and others do not.
My wife and I have arranged a further advance on our mortgage from Yorkshire Building Society as we wish to carry out a loft conversion to our home. Do we need to appoint a solicitor on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel to deal with the legals?
Yorkshire Building Society would not normally appoint a member of their approved list of lawyers 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 Yorkshire Building Society panel
I was thinking of purchasing my friend’s property. Once we agree a price, what’s the best way to move forward? I hope to get a mortgage with Yorkshire Building Society. Is it possible to avoid using solicitors to save on the costs? My father said that years ago it was possible to take the documents into the local Land Registry office and they did the rest
If you are getting a mortgage with Yorkshire Building Society involved you will need to appoint a solicitor on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel. We would not encourage you to both use the same solicitors' firm. There are clear conflict of interest issues and it's not going to make a huge difference to the speed of the overall process. So as not to hold things us you should pass on your solicitors details to Yorkshire Building Society. Feel free to use our search tool to look for a licensed conveyancer or solicitor on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel.