Lenders see conveyancers 'as their in-house legal team'

Conveyancers reacted angrily at the Law Society's flagship property conference today to suggestions that they are increasingly being seen as mortgage lenders' in-house legal teams. 

In a keynote address to the National Property Law Conference, Charles Roe, director of mortgages at UK Finance, which represents 300 members of the banking and finance industry, conceded communications between lenders and conveyancers could be improved.

Roe highlighted frustrations on both sides: for instance, lenders not receiving redemption certificates in a timely fashion and conveyancers struggling to speak to lenders directly.

‘For some lenders, the conveyancer will be their in-house legal team,’ Roe said. He discussed the need for conveyancers to explain climate change risks and meet new requirements on documentation and evidence to support lending decisions where building safety is an issue. 

However, during a Q&A session, an attendee said he understood the need for lenders to protect their money. But it was up to lenders to state what they require. On climate change, for instance, ‘the difficulty for solicitors is to understand what our duties are’.

He said: ‘Our duties are fundamentally by law and court decisions and painful experience when it all goes wrong. It is incumbent on lenders to define what our responsibility is to you, the lender, as a client. We will tick the boxes, check the evidence, but do not expect us to go out to the market, scour the market… opining to you whether we think it affects your liability. We cannot do it.’

The attendee said lenders’ requirements in respect of climate change ‘should be directed towards the valuers and surveyors… If we’re told we must get this report or that report and advise clients what it might mean to them, fine. But we need clarity from lenders on what you’re expecting us to do.’

Roe replied that it is one of the issues UK Finance is working on and will provide more clarity in the Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook.

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