Being at the sharp end of the property market, means that we get very clear visibility as to the reality of how mortgage lenders are working with our clients.
A current trend that we have found is lenders continuing to try and push their own "preferred" conveyancers. Whilst we fully understand that they need to reduce risk, and there is still much mortgage fraud going on out there, we do find their attitude towards conveyancing solicitors a little intriguing to put it politely.
On most days, we take telephone calls from clients who have been "urged" by their mortgage adviser or lender to use another solicitor. Indeed, we had one client that used a high volume firm, "because their mortgage adviser had a good relationship with them which meant the deal would go through more quickly". Obviously we didn't point out that their advisor doesn't really control the process, nor that the firm would pay their advisor a large referral fee".
Nationwide have upped the ante recently - given that they closed their panel over four years ago, and are actively removing solicitors from it, their decision to force all work through their panel management company reduces the choice for consumers even further.
With the ongoing debacle that is HSBC refusing to allow firms to represent them depending on their regulator, it really is time for us to follow the lead in Scotland (where all the decent property ideas seem to come from) and force everyone to use a separate solicitor for the lender.
