Clydesdale Bank Approved Legal Panel
Clydesdale Bank have introduced an approved panel of solicitors and licensed conveyancers to provide legal services to customers buying a property and re-mortgaging. A list of the approved firms is provided below:
Clydesdale Bank Approved Legal Panel PDF document Link opens in a new window
Purchase applications
If your client has not already instructed a legal firm to act on their behalf, they can choose to use any firm on the Bank’s Approved Legal Panel.
Your client can also choose to use their own solicitor or licensed conveyancer to carry out the required legal work. If their chosen firm is on our Approved Legal Panel, the same firm can also act on the Bank’s behalf at no additional cost.
However, if the firm is not on our Approved Legal Panel, the Bank will instruct a firm to act on its behalf and your client will be charged directly for this service, in addition to their own legal fees. This process is known as Separate Representation and the cost will be £250 plus VAT – a total of £300. This must be paid in full before completion funds are released.
Please be aware that if your customer chooses to use a firm that is not on our approved panel, the time required to complete the necessary legal work will take longer. For urgent cases, for instance if exchange is required within 4 weeks, we strongly recommend that your customer chooses a firm on our approved panel.
We do not offer a Separate Representation process for properties in Scotland. Your client must use a solicitor on our Approved Legal Panel.
Re-mortgage applications
Only the Bank’s nominated legal provider or a firm on the Approved Legal Panel may be instructed to provide legal services for remortgages.
Your client may choose the Banks’ ‘Fees Free’ service to cover all basic legal work involved in remortgaging to us. Where this happens, we will instruct our preferred Legal Firm to carry out this work.
However, if your customer does not wish to take advantage of this service, they may choose any other firm that is on the Approved Legal Panel at their own cost. This firm will act on behalf of both the Bank and your client.
Further information
For further information about the Bank’s Approved Legal Panel, please refer to the frequently asked questions below or speak to your local Relationship Partner.
If a solicitor/conveyancer/law firm wishes to join our Clydesdale Bank Legal Panel, they should apply via our Panel Manager, LMS. The application process starts at https://www.lms.com/ConveyancerZone/lenderpanels/apply/
LMS will be providing regular updates to the Bank to ensure our Panel is always up to date.
Yes. This is known as Separate Representation. However, we strongly recommend that your clients use a solicitor who is on our Panel.
Where a non-panel solicitor is used, the Bank will instruct a separate firm to act on its behalf. Involving a third party in the process will increase the time taken to complete the mortgage considerably, and may not meet your customer's requirements.
Should you choose a non-panel solicitor, please advise your client that the process is longer as there is a strong dependency on your client’s legal firm to work closely with Optima Legal to ensure their expectations are met. Your clients must also cover the legal costs of the Bank.
The details of the client’s chosen legal firm should be included in the Mortgage Application Form.
Yes. On a separate representation basis (when the client is appointing a firm to act for them, and the Bank appoints a firm to act for us) a sole practitioner can be used to represent the client, in the same way as a larger firm would.
On a dual representation basis (when the solicitor is acting for the customer and the Bank) sole practitioners can only for loan sizes up to £500,000 and there must be a locum available in the event the sole practitioner is unavailable.