HSBC/Countrywide nightmare!!

fisolty

Hi all,

Anybody had recent house selling experience with buyers using HSBC for their mortgage? We had an offer on 23rd July 2012 from buyers who have sold their property offer received end June 2012 to first time buyers so its a short chain. BUT both my solicitors and buyers solicitors are ready have signed contracts etc but they say they have to send all documents to HSBC legal dept which then takes five working days to process, does this mean they have a third solicitor involved the dreaded Countrywide?? Why do we have to have three solicitors involved. We stated when the offer was received that we would want to move by middle October cos we are going abroad for three weeks we have now been told this will not happen, so because we are going into rented we have to come back off holiday 2nd week Nov and find a property and have told them we will complete in dec (half a year for property sale!!!!!) Or the other option is we have found a great house now and they want the rent to start from 20th Oct with a holding deposit and ref fees of £600.00 but they are pushing for it now before exchange. The agents are sure we will exchange by 20th Oct but obviously this is not guaranteed. By going for this house means we could move out before holiday on exchange and complete when we get back. WHAT SHALL WE DO?????

Yorkie1

When you buy a house with a mortgage, the lender has a solicitor to represent their interests.

Traditionally, the lender is happy for the buyer's solicitor to do this as well as acting for the buyer.

However, HSBC (and a number of other lenders) are getting fussier about who they are happy to act on their behalf. A year or so ago, HSBC dropped their list of solicitors to about 40 (I think). The list has now gone up but it's still relatively small compared to the number of conveyancing firms.

So, if your buyer is not using a solicitor who is on HSBC's panel, then HSBC will appoint another solicitor to act on their behalf. This is usually Countrywide. And yes, they do need to see the documentation to check it out, which builds in delays. CW are pretty useless at their turn round time, as you are finding, and there's nothing you as the seller can do about it. The other solicitors can chase all they want but it may have limited effects.

I'm afraid I don't understand the rest of your post about moving dates and rental properties.

fisolty

Thanks for your reply. This house sale could go on forever then!! Has anybody had any recent experience with HSBC. I thought now they have changed their solicitor options - you can also use your own if you pay a fee of £192.00? My last bit of text was about we are going into rented and not sure when to put a deposit down, estate agents want to exchange before we go abroad on 24th Oct and complete when we return on 12th November but we have no house to go into because the estate agents are telling us not to even look until exchange!!!! Please help anybody!!!

_Ed

I've recently used HSBC and was appointed one of Countrywide's panel of conveyancers (Attwells) which all went through very quickly and smoothly.

I think the delays arise when you choose to use your own solicitor, and then HSBC appoint countrywide to double check everything on their behalf, so you end up with the 3 solicitor mix.

There is another thread on the board with a lot of discussion around this.

Richard_Webster

Thanks for your reply. This house sale could go on forever then!! Has anybody had any recent experience with HSBC. I thought now they have changed their solicitor options - you can also use your own if you pay a fee of £192.00?

The £192 is the fee to HSBC's solicitor and that was the original situation following HSBC's change in January this year. Doesn't mean you don't have a separate solicitor for HSBC. Buyer should have chosen a solicitor accredited under the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme and then they could have acted for both - but this has only applied since last month.

aaronsmith2266

It’s good idea ". I thought now they have changed their solicitor options - you can also use your own if you pay a fee of £192.00?" Buyer should have selected a solicitor official under the Law Civilization Conveyancing Excellence Pattern and then they could have acted for both - but this has only applied since last month.....

Yorkie1

aaronsmith I'm afraid your post is incorrect - there is absolutely no such thing as "Law Civilization Conveyancing Excellence Pattern". See Richard's post immediately above yours for the correct information.

EllasPa

We have just completed using HSBC and we also offered mid July. We used our own local solicitor, so HSBC appointed their own as well (I'm guessing via Countrywide, but not 100% sure). I think it did slow the process down a bit, maybe a week of two but I wanted the 5 yr fixed rate HSBC mortgage, so was willing to take the risk of a slower process. The completion was also slow with HSBC-we didn't get our keys until 3pm on Friday, very frustrating (and cost us waiting time with the removal firm ggrrrr...) But we are now in our new home and have the mortgage deal we wanted, so worth the extra stress & delay.

julieb1987

Surely the EA cannot dictate when you move? You move when you're ready to. If you have seen a house you love is it worth the risk? Can you afford to lose your deposit if the sale falls through? I think you need to tell the EA to stop hassling you and get onto the solicitors as it's out of your hands.