SortRefer has praised Nationwide for its decision to scrap remortgage ‘free legals’ packages across its product range in favour of doubling its cashback offer from £250 to £500.

The online conveyancing portal’s chief executive, Kevin Tunnicliffe thinks that this move by a very large lender could spell the beginning of the end for free legals packages.

He said: “At SortRefer we have campaigned to persuade intermediaries to consider cashback rather than free legals for some time. The recent horrendous service issues that have been widely reported as a result of lender chosen ‘free legals’ conveyancing firms being overwhelmed, seems to have concentrated minds.

“We therefore welcome Nationwide’s move to withdraw free legals in favour of bolstering their cashback offering. This is a signal that we will see more lenders following suit.

“Apart from the obvious and very visible service issues, we have always felt that customers are not best served where, with a free legals package, the conveyancer chosen by the lender only represents the lender and not the client. This can be dangerous for the client by not having representation and many brokers have found that communication on case progress can be poor or non existent.

“With a cashback, brokers are able to give clients the choice of using the cashback as a means to ensure their client is properly represented and that they have more control over the progress of the case.

“I, for one, will not mourn the passing of ‘free legals’ which have proved the old adage that there is no such thing as a free lunch.”