Whilst slow mortgage processing times cause conveyancing chain issues there may be a silver lining for conveyancers.
In bad news for conveyancers, yesterday’s Sunday Times highlighted a number of issues in mortgage processing times.
According to the Sunday Times article, HSBC has admitted that it is taking an average of 56 days to complete mortgage applications.
The news is disappointing given the number of issues that delays can cause.
The longer it takes to pull everything together ahead of exchange of contracts, the more likely it is that the chain will collapse.
Work in progress may never bill at the rate you expected or planned for.
Clients frustrations can ride high as delays are caused that are outside their control.
Mortgage offers that take substantially longer than searches or title information can wreck chains.
When your client is ready to exchange, but properties up or down the chain are being delayed, your costs will escalate as you chase and manage the situation for your client.
The good news is that the decline in mortgage offer processing performance times is caused by a spike in new mortgage applications, caused by a reduction in mortgage rates.
According to the Sunday Times the reduced rates are due to growth in the Funding for Lending Scheme.
The Sunday Times highlights a number of lenders doing comparatively poorly in mortgage offer production times including HSBC, Platform, Leeds, and Virgin.
Other lenders including Aldermore and Halifax are turning mortgage offers around in 13 days with BM Solutions, Metro Bank, ING Direct and RBS and Abbey for Intermediaries following up behind.
Hopefully these delays will be rectified and normal mortgage production timescales will return.
This will in turn result in chains that aren’t frustrated by lenders and we will see an increasing number of conveyancing transactions.
