Mortgage advisors have told a new survey that an industry-wide standard when it comes to notification times concerning the withdrawal of products would be top of their list of demands.
This survey was carried out by Newspage and it asked advisors whether a standard withdrawal notice time of two days or more is something that they would like to see embraced across the industry. The survey came in the wake of the latest decision by a major lender to change some of its mortgage product rates at very short notice.
That lender was TSB, which gave advisors only 25 minutes warning of these rate changes at the end of last week and gave them until the end of the following Monday to get any applications ready.
One of the people who took part in the survey and who stated that an industry-wide minimum period of notice should be introduced was Lodestone Mortgages and Protection director Craig Fish.
According to Financial Reporter, he stated that he understood the pressures that lenders were under that led to these snap decisions, but that Coventry Building Society had shown that minimum notice times were possible.
He then added:
“I think an industry standard should be mandatory, as this would at least enable brokers to manage clients’ expectations and our diaries.”
Fish pointed out that advisors also needed to remind clients to supply the documents required up front to save time.
Advisors with CeMAP training are dealing with high workloads and an industry-wide notice period for changes would be sure to ease pressures.
