Estate agents warn borrowers away from HSBC

The Law Society has recently revealed that a good number of  estate agents have begun to warn borrowers away from using lender HSBC for their mortgages in order to cut back on delays to the house buying process.

HSBC recently made the decision to cut their conveyancing panel to just 42 firms, and even though customers are allowed to choose their own solicitor to carry out their legal work, HSBC will still choose to use one of their own firms to complete their side of the legal workings necessary to secure a home. With a drastic cut in firms working for the lender, this will make for considerable delays on the lender’s side, and may put customers into a difficult position with home owners and the properties they are looking to buy.

It is well documented that not being part of a chain can improve chances of getting the property you want as home owners love nothing better than a buyer who is available to move as soon as they want to. If the property has more than one offer on it, it is down to the owners how fast they want to move and whose offer they want to choose, a point which can cause a potential buyer to lose the house if they are not in the right position. Any possible delays forseen by the owner can lead the house going to someone else, which is why borrowers are encouraged to ensure they are with a lender and in a position where they can move fast on exchanging contracts and moving into their new property.

On top of this, estate agents have started to notice a trend of customers working with HSBC being linked to considerable delays and being wary of working with them for this reason, giving these customers less options when it comes to finding and buying their property.

The Law Society has been campaigning to alert borrowers of the possible negative effects of borrowing from HSBC and believe they are making good headway in doing so. This campaign hopes to not only encourage borrowers to go elsewhere for their loans, but make HSBC see the negative outcomes of their decision and perhaps rethink the changes they have made. The campaign has reached a number of MPs and aims to get the backing of as many figureheads as possible in order to alert everybody looking to take out a mortgage in the near future of the possible detrimental effect borrowing from HSBC may have.

Article by: Andy McBride, Associate Director at Contractor Mortgages Made Easy

Media Contact: Raman Kaur, Public Relations Manager.

Tel: 0844 44 88 800
Email: media@contractormortgagesuk.com