Data published by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) showed that 92% of mortgage complaints about L&G which were resolved in the first six months of the year, were settled in favour of the customer. This compares to the industry average of 45%.

Stephen Smith (pictured), director of housing partnerships, Legal and General Partnership Services, said the majority of the complaints resolved in H1 this year related to a historic block of business written by a former appointed representative (AR) of the network.

The firm, which Smith would not name, had been operating a will writing service and adding the cost of the service to its clients’ mortgage balances. The firm in question also went into liquidation around three years ago.

Smith said: “A rogue firm caused a blip for us but is not indicative of the quality of ARs, in general, which worked with us historically.

“As soon as we found out about this we put a stop to it. Although the complaints show up in the mortgage statistics, they do not relate to the quality of mortgage advice being offered through the network.”

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In an exclusive interview with Mortgage Solutions on the closure of L&G’s network earlier this year, Smith addressed the issue of legacy mortgage business.

Speaking at the time, Smith said: “Don’t underestimate the historic book you’ve got. We’ve arranged £65bn of mortgages through this network and we’ll be responsible until they run off. You won’t wipe out your costs [by closing a network]. You may reduce them but you’ll still need professional indemnity and infrastructure. It’s certainly not a cost-shedding exercise.”