Nationwide group, which arranges mortgages for a number of providers, has reduced the number of conveyancing solicitors it uses as part of a ‘risk-based review'.
Around 300 legal firms throughout the country have been told they will no longer be on the panel for transactions for buying and selling homes, although the finance group stresses that the changes are part of its normal review procedure.
Mortgages provided by the group are through Nationwide, the Mortgage Works, Portman, UCB Home Loans and the Derbyshire, Cheshire and Dunfermline building societies.
Nationwide Group's communications manager Jackie Lawrence said it did not discriminate between types of firms and had sole practitioner members on its panel. The criteria for removal from the panel were varied but risk was one aspect of this.
The Law Society, which represents conveyancing solicitors in England and Wales, has begun discussions with the Nationwide group on the implications of the move.
