Law Society wins conveyancing battle with HSBC

The Law Society's campaign against HSBC's decision to cut its conveyancing panel to only 43 firms ended in victory last night.

In a joint statement, the society and the bank announced that law firms with CQS, the society's conveyancing quality mark, will be entitled to act for HSBC. More than 1,400 firms have CQS and a further 400 have applied.

Law Society chief executive Des Hudson called on solicitors to complain to MPs about HSBC and raised the matter with business secretary Vince Cable (see solicitorsjournal.com, 20 January 2012).

Under the new regime, which will be introduced in August, the only restriction on CQS firms will be a limit of £150,000 on the value of mortgages that can be handled by a sole practitioner.

In the statement, the society and HSBC said they would 'continue to work together to raise the value for CQS sole practitioners'.

They said HSBC would help the society in 'further developing the CQS assessment scheme so that it becomes the automatic requirement for a firm to join a mortgage lender's conveyancing panel'. Other lenders will also be involved.

'With this move HSBC is demonstrating its commitment to putting customers first as well as its confidence in the CQS scheme,' Hudson said.

'The bank has been constructive in working with the Law Society in designing this solution. As well as giving its customers a much wider choice of solicitor that can also act for HSBC, it has aligned itself further with the CQS and the high standards the scheme represents.

'The Law Society and its members have campaigned for this change in the interests of solicitors' home-buying clients since HSBC introduced its original panel.'

Under the new regime, clients will have three options: using one of the existing 43 panel firms; using CQS members who are not on the panel; or using a non-CQS firm and paying £160 plus VAT for a panel firm to act for the lender.

Martijn van der Heijden, head of lending at HSBC, said: 'We introduced our panel in January to provide additional protection for both our customers and the bank. 'We listened to feedback from customers and solicitors, and through working with the Law Society can now agree to more solicitors acting for us while also managing our risks and maintaining the unique benefits of using one of our panel solicitors.'