Clarity at a price
Thursday 05 July 2012 by Deborah Elizabeth Daniels
It was helpful to refer solicitors to part 3 of the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook, particularly the set of voluntary sample letters ‘designed to help ensure complete clarity’.
There is a problem with clarity since, to become an associate member of CML and thereby to gain access to such letters, the cost is £6,940 plus VAT and a one-off fee is £1,525 plus VAT. By having ‘panels’ and therefore control, lenders seek to wrest the process from independent solicitors and insult them further by the above ‘rip-off’. The sooner we establish that no solicitor should act for both sides of such an important financial transaction the better.
Deborah Elizabeth Daniels, Bird & Daniels, Shipley, West Yorks
