No Lender Lockdown When It Comes to Changes to Handbook Requirements
In the last three months Lexsure has witnessed significant activity by lenders changing their Handbook requirements.
Whilst firms currently encounter a slowdown in activity from buyers and sellers there is no hold-up in lenders revising their instructions to law firms.
Here are some of the facts and figures:
| Lender | Sections Changed | Separate Events |
| Barclays Bank UK PLC | 27 | 2 |
| Halifax | 3 | 1 |
| Aldermore Bank | 12 | 4 |
| Coventry Building Society | 3 | 2 |
| Lloyds | 2 | 1 |
| Atom Bank | 13 | 3 |
| HSBC | 1 | 1 |
During the same period there has been a significant uptake in services such as LENDERmonitor. I can only assume that this is due to anticipated file requests checking for Handbook breaches. Enquiries by firms concerning the LM04 lender policy search increased by 300% compared to the same period last year.
55% of LM04 searches in the last two months revealed lender changes. The most searched lender was HSBC.
With the end of the lockdown approaching and with a large number of transactions having been put on hold, there will be an inevitable rush to submit Certificates on Title to lenders. It’s easy to get tripped up and miss a Handbook change. Now is not the time to cause serious and irreparable damage to your firm by failing to identify changes to lender instructions.
Kindly shared by Simon Seaton, non-practising solicitor
