Peter Beaumont, sales and marketing director at Mortgages plc, said: “Mortgages plc has heard anecdotal feedback during recent weeks that some lenders are unnecessarily delaying the payment of proc fees to intermediaries.
“Cashflow is critical to brokers, regardless of whether the firm is a network, packager or an intermediary, and there are no acceptable reasons why lenders should sit on payments once an application has completed.”
Beaumont added: “Paying proc fees in a timely fashion is every bit as important as paying competitive proc fees.”
Sarah Gwilt, mortgage adviser at Dickson Lishman Prince, said: “I agree that fees are often held up and I would extend that to lenders and mortgage clubs. When a case completes I usually look to put a chase on the fees for the month following.”
Gwilt also called for further technology: “In this computerised society I can’t see why some companies, such as Mortgages plc, can put through cases and fees within a matter of hours or days while with other lenders the wait can drag on for several months. All lenders should be able to offer
the same, short time-span to process fees,” she said.
Peter O’Donovan, mortgage manager at Bestinvest also welcomed the declaration by Beaumont. He said: “We don’t have a real problem with late payment of proc fees but there is no reason why lenders can’t pay them quicker.
“I think that it would definitely hurt a sole trader more than a larger company having to wait a month or more after completion for their fees to come through.”
