Solicitor cannot request mortgage funds from HSBC

fryderykchopin

I'm a FTB close to completion (this month!)
Today I have received the email below from my solicitor. I will of course contact my lender (HSBC) tomorrow but since I know there are many experienced fellows here, I just wanted to check if anyone can provide some advice to calm down my anxiety...

I have been in touch with your mortgage lender and they will not accept our request for mortgage funds by way of fax and will only accept our request through the portal system. I have called them to confirm that the option through the LMS website is not there to request mortgage funds through the portal system and there seems to be some error with this system and we have spoken with LMS who then confirm that we need to speak to HSBC direct.

Please can you contact your mortgage lender to see if they will accept a faxed certificate of title in order to progress matters.

SMR710

Hmmm... you're paying your solicitor to deal with this on your behalf! Your solicitor should be making contact with the mortgage lender, not you! Make them work for their fee!!

princeofpounds

For those wondering, LMS are a company that manage panels of law firms for banks. Kind of a middleman between the two. They also seem to provide a platform for both sides to work on.

I agree this is a problem between the solicitor (who is representing and working for HSBC as well as you and should have direct communication!) and the lender, presumably due to IT problem somewhere between the two of them and the LMS platform.

I would be very surprised they are asking you to sort this out yourself. Without know what the fault it it's hard to assign blame, but it shouldn't be up to you to sort out problems between those three.

pinkteapot

Agree with the others. I would just reply and say something like "Please can you continue to liaise with HSBC yourself to resolve this. I don't know enough about how these systems work to discuss it with them." 

davidmcn

To be fair, it's possible that a complaint from the customer might get things moving. And the solicitor may have more productive things to do with their time today than spend another hour on hold to a call centre.

fryderykchopin

I have called the HSBC number for mortgage services and followed the route for solicitors and third parties.
After 10 minutes of talk, I get the "hint" that operators are having high volume of calls and waiting times may be in excess of 25 minutes.
I think that explains it all.
I have emailed my solicitor suggesting to sort this out themselves. Thanks for the suggestion.

bucksbloke

I also would call. And this is exactly why I always use a broker.