Nationwide Update – Release of Funds

Possibly due to the increasing trend of exchanging and completing simultaneously, Nationwide  Building Society have issue the following update to lawyers concerning fund requests:

Help us to continue to help you & our members…

Due to unprecedented volumes, we are implementing an earlier cut-off for same-day funds requests. 

From 25/06/20 up to and including 01/07/2020, we will be unable to accept same-day requests for funds after 10 am on Lender Exchange.

As a reminder, our normal practice is to release mortgage advance monies electronically via BACS transfer to your chosen bank account rather than by CHAPS. For this we require at least five working days’ notice of the completion date.

If funds are required in less than five days, please see the offer special condition (Charge for transferring the loan to the conveyancer).

Any requests for funds with less than 48 hours’ notice will continue to be assessed but are not guaranteed.

Please continue to help us by providing as much notice as possible.

A Moment to Feel Like an Artist

In being a software architect designing products for lawyers I can't be certain that all the effort poured into a creation will be appreciated. 

The same is surely true or a painter or song writer. Do they 'know' for sure what will be successful? 

As a creative person it's easy to get disheartened about the lack of applause and upside immediately after you have created something.

In looking to the outside world for valuation and recognition for Lexsure's products I readily admit to worrying about appreciation and validation. 

Last night I received two emails in the space of half an hour concerning Lexsure's report on title technology (e-ROT).

Here's an extract of an email trail with a lawyer after advising that her account will go live soon. No doubt she was attracted by the time saving aspects of the software: 

Lawyer :

WOOHOO.

Right now I am just preparing a report on title and making a note of specific enquiries to be raised for a purchase on which my client wants to exchange next week and complete on the 4th July so its rather urgent and I am still not in receipt of all search results but plugging away so I am not caught out. This will take a good 3-4 hours out of my evening and I have not yet gone down for lunch so dinner will be a pass.

Me: 

So when I said in the webinar 'for many lawyers the Report on Title encroaches on personal time' you really knew what I meant :-) 

Lawyer: 

Living embodiment Simon 

In the second email a lawyer simply said: 

I think it is an amazing product and a Godsend!!

A long way to go but happy to take the applause for now. 

Why even a prophet of doom can be comforting

[From two years ago, even more relevant right now]

I’m a specialist in risk, so I can sometimes be accused of being a little conservative in outlook, even for a lawyer. But I suspect that this blog post will have some lawyers reaching for their thesaurus to find stronger words, like “worrier”, “pessimist” or even “doom-monger”.

I’m sticking my neck out today to predict that within the next few years there will be a dramatic increase in lender file audits. Reaching for my own thesaurus, I’ll go for a “tsunami”. It will be destructive. Many firms will be removed from lender panels or fail to find a PI insurer, which amounts to the same thing. Once the waters recede, there will be fewer conveyancing law firms.

As with the mythical Cassandra of Troy, I’m predicting that I’ll be roundly ignored and then proved right. Although unlike Cassandra, I hope to avoid insanity. And living as a king’s concubine.

There are a number of reasons why lender file audits are on the increase and are set to be more prevalent:

• In times of economic stability or growth, cases where lender requirements have been breached are usually masked by rising house prices, as mortgage lenders are able to recoup the value of the secured property following repossession. However, when prices fall, lenders will turn to professional negligence claims to make up their losses. 
• We are already witnessing a correction in the market. However small the changes are, some borrowers will quickly find themselves in dire straits. Payment holidays eventually come to an end. 
• Lenders will definitely not, it won’t surprise you, swallow their losses without a care in the world. For conveyancers, that means file reviews because lawyers are an “easy target” for a lender looking to offset a loss – or pass it on altogether.

So, let’s say I’ve not yet convinced you that doom is-a-coming? What’s the downside to taking some action now to ensure your conveyancing practice is as rigorous as you’d like a lender’s lawyers to think it is? Any reason not to run an LM04 policy search before you submit any COT?

And if I have convinced you… what actions can you take?

Strong risk assurance embedded in your firm’s everyday practice can nullify those worries. The best way of checking that you risk management is robust is to use an independent third party to run a lender compliance audit.

If you’d like to find out more about how Lexsure’s lender compliance audit can assist your firm please contact support@lexure.com and hear it straight from the [Trojan] horse’s mouth.