Many cases are of course not simple and involve transfers of equity or leasehold.
The government’s ambition to achieve a seven day switch over for remortgages has had a mixed response from the industry and now Eddie Goldsmith from Goldsmith Williams has criticised the ambition as not being an "overnight fix".
Goldsmith (pictured) said: “It is of course great news for borrowers if such a quick turnaround could be achieved as per the Government’s aim but I’m not sure this has been thought through sufficiently and it’s not just good headline grabbing.”
“Even if the seven day turnaround period were to run from the date of the mortgage offer to the borrower this doesn’t seem to fit well with the recently introduced period of reflection of seven days. Are the Government taking this into account in their calculations?”
Goldsmith added: “At the moment a straight forward remortgage on average takes one month from offer to legal completion. The legal process even on a simple case involves getting up to date redemption statements (some lenders are good at this – some not so!); getting documents out to clients and returned; getting special conditions such as building insurance in place and of course arranging for the release of funds from the new lender – many of whom require five working days.
“Many cases are of course not simple and involve transfers of equity or leasehold.”
Goldsmith said that he was encouraged that the government was looking at both this and other areas of the home transfer market – including gazumping – and that conveyancers would do all that they could to help speed the transfer up.
But he added: “This is not an overnight fix and does require the government to get involved at all levels to make it happen.”
