The Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) has unveiled a quality assurance scheme, designed to ensure its members get places on mortgage lenders’ conveyancing panels at a time when these are being trimmed back.

The new scheme combines the governance of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, which is the industry regulator, with SLC transaction monitoring arrangements.

Licensed conveyancers are not eligible to join the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme, which has received more than 1,500 applications since opening in January, and accredited 839 firms.

The licensed conveyancers’ trade body announced its scheme, SLC Quality Assured, at its first annual conference this week. The CLC will act as gatekeeper to the scheme, controlling panel qualification and providing lenders with the assurance that all SLC panel firms are fully regulated.

Licensed conveyancers regulated by the CLC will be automatically passported onto the SLC Quality Assured scheme and can apply to become panel members, which will activate the certification process. Once activated, panel firms will be required to register every new transaction with the SLC, which will monitor the transaction’s progress at critical points, and report any concerns.

Licensed conveyancers will pay a ‘nominal fee’, yet to be fixed, to become SLC Quality Assured members, but that fee has yet to be fixed. SLC representative Mike Ockenden told the Gazette that the scheme has been designed to help licensed conveyancers confront moves by lenders to cut the size of their panels and tighten up membership criteria in the face of concerns over mortgage fraud. He said he expects the scheme to launch next spring.

SLC chair John Clay said the new scheme would benefit lenders through ‘reduced fraud risk and additional transaction protection’.