Paul McKay, broker at Homeloan Express Ltd, explained: “Brokers should be aware with BM Solutions that they must inform BM Customer Services that they do not want client details passed to Legal & General for the cross-selling of general insurance products and to cross out the last paragraph of the client declaration. There is no ‘opt-out’ check- box option on the BM declaration to avoid this. Is this treating customers fairly?”
He added: “It’s doing what its parent company Halifax likes doing – nicking your customers. With no opt-out box, most brokers will tend to bypass this. They should be aware of this pitfall.”
Carla Lavender, press officer at BM Solutions, said: “BM Solutions, as with most lenders, requires buildings insurance to be in place at completion. Without insurance in place, completion can potentially be held up. Our insurance providers give a courtesy call to BM customers to ensure that insurance is in place in order to avoid any hold-ups.”
Kevin Morgan, managing director of Consilium Financial Planning, believed BM was going against the principles of treating customers fairly and said an opt-out box should be included on the declarations with immediate effect.
He said: “Most lenders do have an opt-out box, and they should do, so for BM to not have one emphasises the unfairness to clients being practised. We want to feel confident clients aren’t going to be called by insurance providers when this is already being taken care of by the broker. This is bad form on BM’s part. It should institute an opt-out box immediately.”
