Santander has become the latest bank to remove a number of smaller firms from its conveyancing panel.
The Law Society has expressed its serious concerns that several hundred law firms have been culled, despite having been charged £199 by Santander for panel management information.
The cull is based on the number of conveyancing transactions done by a firm specifically in relation to Santander. The level of transactions Santander requires has not been specified.
Lloyds undertook a similar cull of local solicitors two years ago and HSBC, whose residential panel manager is Countrywide, provoked uproar in January when it announced it was cutting its panel to just 43 firms to service its entire UK mortgage customer base.
Since then, HSBC has had to relent somewhat on its position – largely because estate agents warned customers that they might encounter severe delays in conveyancing and risk losing the deal.
But the trend by which banks can dictate which solicitors their mortgage customers can use is clearly a continuing concern.
How much does it matter? For A P Bassets, the only law firm in the town of Lostwithiel, Cornwall, it means it can no longer act for clients wanting to buy a property with a mortgage from any of the main lenders such as Santander, Halifax or Cheltenham & Gloucester.
“The banks are not at all concerned that customers have to pass their own local solicitor and take their business to another firm in another town,” says the firm.
“Like lots of other firms in small towns, we may never have enough transactions to meet the banks’ criteria, but that is the nature of small town business.
“Nevertheless, small as we are, with the number of conveyancing transactions that we have done, it does mean we have been a viable and successful small town business, making a positive contribution to the local economy.”
When a Cornish TV company did a piece on the issue, it made for an articulate item – with no shortage of local people standing up against the might of the big banks and their anti-local agenda.
The video does last about five minutes, but it is well worth watching because of the way it explains a disturbing issue once it hits ground level.
https://www.cornwallchannel.co.uk/big-banks-bad-for-business/
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Comments
Help us to help you - united we stand divided we fall!
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/big-banks-bad-for-local-business
Couldn't agree more with Richard - the residential mortgage valuation and survey market is now little more than a Cartel - the banks dont want to know about small local firms - much to the detriment of the purchaser - as they typically get little more than a page of standard parapgraps - often not worth the paper its written on. At the time RICS did precisely ZERO to stand up for its members - I hope the Law Society will stand up to this andthen may be finally RICS will take note.....
A number (not all) of solicitors are now calling for compulsory separate representation, where one lawyer acts for the buyer and another for the lender.
Whilst that may help some firms, is it really the best way forward for all involved in the home buying and selling process?
Yes it's an appalling state of affairs. One that small firms of residential surveyors have been living with for over 20 years. At least small firms of solicitors seem to have the support of their professional body. Unlike residential surveyors did.