His reasoning for this was simple; to streamline the process and reduce duplication, and gain some consistency across the industry in the continuing battle to reduce the incidence of solicitor fraud.
Mortgage fraud is a constant thorn in the side of the conveyancing sector, but in an intensely competitive market, where too many firms are chasing too little business, I dare say the problem won’t be going away anytime soon.
Of course, in a perfect world it wouldn’t happen, but we don’t live in a perfect world and the reality is whenever there are large sums of money involved, there will always be someone prepared to commit fraud somewhere along the line.
It’s a problem that is causing no end of bother for the conveyancing profession’s reputation and I suspect it won’t be too long before other lenders join the call for tighter controls.
So, just how does a member of public choose a solicitor?
Recent reports from the SRA and Legal Services Board suggest people rely on personal recommendation. This is perfectly understandable.
For the man on the street, there is no easy way to judge how well solicitors do their job - apart from how well they do it for others.
Clients trust brokers to have a good knowledge of the sector and, as such, are happy to accept recommendation. Therefore, it is no help to anyone if solicitors recommended by brokers are shut down because they’ve been up to no good or get into financial difficulty.
Quite rightly, there’s mounting pressure to exercise some degree of due diligence when referring clients to legal service providers. In other words, pick your partner well.
Make sure they have a good track record and make sure they have probity.
Yes, it is complex and often confusing, but the better legal service providers will have an easily accessible due diligence kit that supplies comprehensive information and instruction of what needs to be verified when making a referral to any legal services firm.
Customers need to be protected. So do lenders. So does the conveyancing sector. And just in case you were wondering how to go about this then go onto the Goldsmith Williams website and see how we can help you with this!
