[1]The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has announced the most substantial revisions to the lender handbook in more than a decade.
33 sections of part 1 of the handbook (accounting for more than 10%) will see revisions – the most since the second edition of the handbook was launched in 2002.
In turn, the CML has instructed all mortgage lenders to update their specific requirements that form the part 2s and have promised that these changes will be available through their website from 1 December 2014.
Although there are frequent changes to the CML handbook park 2s, these more wide-ranging edits to the handbook will surely have a significant impact on conveyancers who will be looking to manage completions leading into the festive period.
The CML handbook itself can be, at times, unwieldy to use but great steps have been taken in recent years to make it more accessible, through the advent of services such as JET convey which is available through property data and service provider TM Group.
Conveyancers using JET will not be adversely affected by these new revisions, as the system reduces the lengthy requirements of each lender into a series of simple questions to be completed with each case.
Ben Harris of TM Group [2] commented: “Many conveyancers will be spending time on Monday getting their heads around the lenders’ part 2 changes and will now have the added stress of making sure all of their teams are up to speed on the changes.”
“In contrast, firms using JET via the TM platform will carry on as normal, knowing that the JET workflow is fully compliant with any changes made, not just on Monday but at any time in the future.”