The Covid-19 pandemic has led to delays in all parts of the home buying process with conveyancing and searches bearing a heavy toll.
Today’s Conveyancer spoke to a few lenders about how to improve relationships with conveyancers and many said early and regular communication is key using a mix of phone, emails and web based portals.
To ensure cases are progressed as quickly as possible, Santander encourages conveyancers to send case queries that need a surveyor or legal referral through as soon as possible. If they are proactively managing their pipeline this will help to speed up the process.
Accord Mortgages, the intermediary arm of Yorkshire Building Society, said it has an open and honest dialogue with its conveyancing partners which works well. The lender commented:
“We know there are challenges facing everyone at the moment, so by sharing any concerns as early as possible we can find solutions together and ensure the best customer outcome.”
Peter Izard, business development manager at Investec Private Banking, agreed: “The success of any transaction is when all parties engage regularly and issues can be flagged and dealt with at the earliest opportunity via phone and email.”
Masthaven Bank also champions email and phone. Shelley Connelly, head of underwriting at the specialist lender, said:
“We are in daily communication with our conveyancers using a range of mediums depending on the nature of the enquiry. Whilst email is always best for documenting actions on files, urgent queries are always best dealt with over the phone to minimise potential delays.”
Skipton Building Society said all emails and phone calls from conveyancers are prioritised within the team and it aims to clear this post within 24 hours. For cases nearing completion these are escalated and every attempt is made to ensure completion dates are met.
Scott Callaghan, mortgage operations director at The Mortgage Lender, a specialist intermediary lender, said email is the most convenient method of communication but it also has a full home working solution to deal with telephony queries and postal enquiries. He added:
“Email allows complex conveyancing issues which can arise before completion to be raised and dealt with more quickly than other methods of communication. We monitor all emails very closely to ensure rapid response.”
The most effective way for conveyancers to contact Newcastle Building Society is via email or through the mortgage contact centre:
“Our advice would be to check our handbook via the BSA on when to contact and when we expect the conveyancer to address certain issues before submitting their certificate on title.
“Longer term, we are looking at new ways to allow conveyancers to submit information through an online portal and also have more information to hand for customers looking to remortgage to another lender.”
Portals are favoured by the likes of Lloyds Bank, HSBC, Nationwide and Kensington Mortgages.
Lloyds Bank has recently introduced a solicitor portal so the bank can upload a copy of the offer almost instantly, saving time for the conveyancer. It also said it is proactively contacting conveyancers to give details of timeframes to help with completions.
Kensington Mortgages has an online digital portal where conveyancers can communicate with the lender including live case tracking and case updates.
Nationwide said it is important to give plenty of notice about any changes and completion dates. Conveyancers can follow Nationwide’s service updates and contact the lender online if they need to.
Chris Pearson, head of intermediary mortgages at HSBC UK, has made some suggestions as to how lenders can better communicate with conveyancers. He said:
“Wherever possible, the lender should have policy and ‘handbook’ answers to frequently asked questions at the touch of a button; and enable those answers to be intuitive based on the question being asked, for example, through robotics or AI. That way, simple questions can be found quickly by conveyancers and eliminate the need to call.
“Notwithstanding that, I think it’s pretty clear that further resource and investment is needed to handle current demand and from an HSBC perspective we’re certainly gearing up and cross training more colleagues where we need to.
“Looking to the future, my personal view point is that an industry standard version of the ‘current account switcher service’ could be the way forward for handling redemption figures and therefore the completion journey for customers, lenders and conveyancers.”
Written by Joanne Atkin, Freelance Journalist
2 Responses
As far as answering phones etc is currently concened, HSBC is by far currently the worst performer. Call holding of two, three and more hours has been recently reported on a regular basis.
HSBC have been by far the worst through Covid. A HSBC mortgage offer drops on your desk abs you feel a sense of dread!! The average wait time to get through for conveyancer is 2 hours (when you are then usually cut off and gave to call back). One intermediary told me to call her helpline with them and I got through within a few minutes, clearly prioritising new business when you can’t efficiently deal with offers you’ve issued on if you’ve got busy conveyancers on hold for hours on end. V frustrating!! Other lenders haven’t been too bad in my experience.