"It’s really hard to be critical of lenders"
Others in the industry were slower to criticise lenders citing the recent shocks experienced by the sector as the reason.
Following September’s “mini” Budget mortgage lenders were forced to pull hundreds of mortgage products from the market as they were unable to price them due to soaring swap rates.
Mortgage interest rates rose sharply as a result of this and the Bank of England’s decisions to raise the base rate, but in the past few weeks have begun to slowly fall.
In November the average five-year fixed rate fell below 6 per cent for the first time in seven weeks, to 5.95 per cent, according to Moneyfacts.
“It’s really hard to be critical of lenders, as it’s been a difficult market for everyone,” sales manager at mortgage broker MB Associates, Phil Leivesley said.
Leivesley described current lender service levels as a “mixed bag” and noted that the “mini” Budget fallout made lenders jobs more difficult.
“The lenders who remained in the market have received a significant level of applications, and this has directly led to the delays in processing applications,” Leivesley told FTAdviser.
He also pointed out that short notice product withdrawals meant lenders were dealing with cases from advisers that were not “perhaps packaged as well as they normally are”. This in turn contributed to reduced service levels, according to Leivesley.
“Thankfully we do appear to be seeing more lenders reintroduce themselves back to the market, and it certainly feels like some calmness has returned and business volumes are reducing. These two factors will likely see service issues resolve themselves pretty quickly,” Leivesley added.
Other brokers noted that it is the borrower who feels the worst effect of reduced service levels.
Manager at mortgage adviser Oportfolio, Louis Mason said: “Borrowers are having to wait for a long time for a response from the lenders and legal teams at the moment, which is stressful.”
Helix Financial Partners managing partner, Adam Stiles added that conveyancing firms also feel the knock on effect.
Stiles said: “Whilst lenders are slow in getting to offer, it's the lenders who give borrowers ‘free legals’ who are suffering.
“Many of these conveyancing firms can't keep up with the amount of work, do not reply to any form of communication, and in many cases show little empathy in the financial plight of the borrower in making sure deals go through before the offer runs out.”
jane.matthews@ft.com & ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
