Goldsmith Williams senior partner Eddie Goldsmith said that the closure of Norman Saville & Co, which had offices in London and Birmingham, should act as a reminder to all mortgage brokers to recommend conveyancing firms they knew were well founded and offered a high quality service.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) shut down Norman Saville & Co on 5 July this year. Its intervention will protect clients’ money and documents, and the SRA has appointed Russell-Cooke Solicitors to look after all client files.
An SRA spokesman said that an intervention against a firm is only taken as a last resort when there is a threat to the public interest. He said the grounds for intervention against Norman Saville & Co were breaches of the Solicitors Accounts Rules and suspected dishonesty.
Goldsmith said the flight to quality taking place in the mortgage market among brokers and lenders is also affecting conveyancing firms: “Brokers need to choose their conveyancing partners carefully, because law firms are no different to other types of service provider and are vulnerable to being closed down or going out of business for a variety of reasons.”
He added that brokers should check out the firms they recommend to prevent having their own reputation smeared if it goes out of business.
Goldsmith said: “If a broker has no experience of using a specific law firm or conveyancing specialist they should take some obvious precautions, such as checking the firm’s reputation with other brokers or estate agents and also establishing its credentials including any recent awards it may have won. A quick internet search will often reveal any significant dissatisfaction with a firm.”
The principals of Norman Saville & Co, Kiran Nahar and Farhat Malik-Masud, challenged the SRA’s intervention on 15 July and those proceedings are ongoing.
