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Companies still citing the pandemic as a reason for delays

Journalist: Ruby Hinchliffe, The Telegraph

ended 20. February 2024

We're looking for examples of companies and Government services which are still citing the pandemic for delays – banks, building societies, conveyancing firms, HMRC, Land Registry, DVLA etc. I understand complaints with some airlines are still taking years, are they citing Covid as the reason? Any examples where poor service is being pinned on the pandemic, send them our way!

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Chris Schutrups
Founder at The Mortgage Hut / William James Wealth Management
The mortgage market has recovered back to a pre-pandemic norm. Like most, it struggled as it tried to bring staff back to work, however we have seen industries such as conveyancing struggle to recruit good quality conveyancers and this has been shown in some of the partners that the mortgage lenders will work with through the remortgage process.

Another huge part of our industry which is still affected is the land registry department. It has between a 6-12 month delay on registering purchases on land registry. This can cause issues for home movers and borrowers who are looking to re-finance or who are just looking to confirm their ownership of the property to third parties.

At this point in the cycle there should be no reason whatsoever that the department and companies haven't scaled back up to pre Covid levels. Covid was something that affected our world, however should not be used as an excuse for poor service or service for a lack of competent leadership.
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Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
The only reason they can still be blaming the pandemic on their delays are if they fired all their staff when it hit, but then found it cost offective to stick with the lower staff level. One day, it will catch up and here we are! Low staff may be cheaper, but your service levels will then be demolished!