Lloyds told Mortgage Solutions that its partnerships will be companies who refer business regularly enough to understand and keep up with the lender’s criteria and policy changes.
Any firms at risk will be sent individual letters over the next month and will be entitled to complete pipeline cases. Lloyds said the panel will stay open to new applicants ready to hit volume targets within 12 months of membership.
A Lloyds spokesperson said: “We haven’t had any feedback on this yet and are still at an early stage. However, anyone with issues may want to talk to us and we are happy to discuss the move and find a solution with each and every firm.”
Nationwide confirmed it also removed in the region of 300 firms from its conveyancing panel in April this year using criteria including transaction levels among other factors. The lender wouldn’t comment on how individual firms were assessed for fraud.
A Nationwide spokesperson said: “In line with other lenders, it is not our policy to disclose the specific reasons for the removal of a firm or the size of the current panel.”
Richard Sexton, director of business development at surveyor E.surv said: “There have been a lot of rumblings from lenders in the last 12 months that they are not comfortable in their current relationships with legal firms. We’ll probably see other lenders taking similar steps.
“Like the valuation market, conveyancers will have to consolidate into bigger groups because lenders will be more comfortable dealing with corporate entities.”
Law Society spokesman Paul Marsh said “We will continue to engage with the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Building Societies Association and individual lenders, encouraging them to recognise that cuts to panels based on a ‘one size fits all’ model is not the best way to address lenders’ concerns.”
