The Law Soci­ety has reached an agree­ment with HSBC regard­ing its Res­i­den­tial Con­veyanc­ing pan­el, mean­ing all firms with the Law Soci­ety’s Con­veyanc­ing Qual­i­ty Scheme (CQS), such as Jack­son Bar­rett & Gass, will again be able to act for both lender and cus­tomer on a joint rep­re­sen­ta­tion basis.

Since Jan­u­ary, HSBC had cre­at­ed a pan­el of only 43 firms that could act on a dual rep­re­sen­ta­tion basis, mean­ing that there were much high­er inci­dents of sep­a­rate rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Fol­low­ing HSBC’s agree­ment with the Law Soci­ety, cus­tomers can now choose a CQS firm safe in the knowl­edge that HSBC will also be able to instruct that firm reduc­ing delay and addi­tion­al work.

HSBC said the orig­i­nal pan­el had been intro­duced ​“to pro­vide addi­tion­al pro­tec­tion for both our cus­tomers and the bank”.

How­ev­er, the intro­duc­tion of the pan­el and relat­ed sep­a­rate rep­re­sen­ta­tion led to report­ed wide­spread delays to the home buy­ing process, as well as com­plaints to the Office of Fair Trad­ing, an e‑petition that had col­lect­ed more than 2,000 sig­na­tures, and plans to protest at the bank’s AGM on 25 May.

Sean Bar­row, a local solic­i­tor for 33 years says ​“Com­mon sense has now pre­vailed. HSBC’s deci­sion to ini­tial­ly reduce the Con­veyanc­ing pan­el served no pur­pose oth­er than to reduce con­sumer choice.

We have already wit­nessed severe delays due to HSBC’s pan­el. This is an impor­tant step to speed­ing up Con­veyanc­ing trans­ac­tions for every­one involved.”

-ends-

For more infor­ma­tion about Res­i­den­tial Con­veyanc­ing please get in touch with Solic­i­tor, Eleanor Finni­gan, & Legal Exec­u­tive, Quentin Dodd, on 01625 523988 or mail@​JBGass.​com.