Yorkshire Building Society Conveyancing Lender Panel Compliance Tool

Lexsure’s COMPLETIONmonitor is web-based pre- and post-completion checklist for residential conveyancing lawyers. Supported by the Council of Mortgage Lenders and PI insurers. COMPLETIONmonitor is a unique risk management tool.

This system assists the way you can demonstrate to lender panels that you are, and can stay fully compliant with their requirements, with alerts on Yorkshire Building Society’s changes. Notwithstanding that utilising the software is not a condition for acceptance on the Yorkshire Building Society panel, demonstrating you can stay up to date with Yorkshire Building Society’s Handbook requirements is an excellent support to your panel application and, just as importantly, protect your panel standing.

The system creates real-time alerts, automatically produces regulatory and CQS reports, and will improve your firm's efficiency. It is also simply to use, 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, frequently:

A Timeline of Policy Changes


Since 2008, Yorkshire Building Society has made 259 revisions or additions to sections of their version of the CML Handbook.
That equates to a section change every 10.5 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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Common questions asked concerning the Yorkshire Building Society Solicitor Panel from members of the public

The lawyer I had intended to instruct on a remortgage said he will levy higher legal fees if my mortgage is with Yorkshire Building Society because of their unusual legal requirements. Will I regret using Yorkshire Building Society? Is Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing so much more difficult?
Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing requirements for their panel are no better or no more complicated than most lenders. It is the case now the CML Handbook, the "bible" used by solicitors to establish lender requirements, is different for each lender. It is not clear if your lawyer is on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel. If they are not, this does add further risk of delay as Yorkshire Building Society will appoint their own solicitors to look after their interest.
Can you clarify something for me?. My lawyer is not to blame but, the conveyancing for my house purchase has been going on for months. The Local Authority Search from Yorkshire Building Society was issued random date and we have agreed a date for me to move into the property on 6. My solicitor has advised that as she is on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel she needs to redo the searches as they are no longer valid.
One of the many conditions to being on the Yorkshire Building Society approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook Part 2 obligations (last updated for this lender on Yorkshire Building Society)which specifies that a local authority search be not more than 6 months old. You should nevertheless ask your lawyer to check whether something called ‘search validation’ indemnity insurance is acceptable to Yorkshire Building Society.
I have been looking for competitive conveyancing fees. Can I be assured that all the law firms that are identified on your directory are on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel?
The law firms listed on our site have assured us via an online form that they are on the Yorkshire Building Society panel and agreed to advise us to take down their listing in the event of removal off of the Yorkshire Building Society panel. To date we have not been informed by either a bank or a member of the public that the data about a specific firm being on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel is incorrect.
Can you clarify what the consequences are if my lawyer’s firm is expelled from the Yorkshire Building Society Solicitor panel in advance of completion?
The first thing to point out is that, this is very unlikely to happen. 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 for a fee.
Hi, thinking about buying a house off my mate. Once we agree a price, what’s the best way to proceed? 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.
What are the common reasons for a lender such as Yorkshire Building Society to withdraw a mortgage offer?
Banks and Building Societies such as Yorkshire Building Society can withdraw their mortgage offer although this is unusual. In the unlikely event that Yorkshire Building Society withdraw their offer they may or may not inform you or the lawyer as to the reasons why. There are many potential reasons but here are a number of examples:
  • If the borrower informs Yorkshire Building Society of a change in security address
  • If the borrower informs Yorkshire Building Society of a change in the loan amount agreed
  • Amendments if purchase price adjusted and the loan to value limits exceeded by this. Please note that Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel solicitors would be obliged to notify Yorkshire Building Society of a change in the price of the property.
  • If the lender reasonably believe that the applicant, borrower, mortgagor or guarantor is insolvent or is about to become insolvent or has or will have a petition presented or if any one or all enter into any arrangement with their creditors generally or if any one or all should suffer a material change in their financial circumstances
  • If the solicitor on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel acting for the applicant, borrower, mortgagor or guarantor cannot comply with Yorkshire Building Society ‘s instructions
Planning on purchasing a house with a mortgage with Yorkshire Building Society. I have received an online quote from a licensed conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Building Society if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.
They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that they are on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel