“As HSBC has made perfectly clear, this is not an issue about HIPs. Mortgage companies have always taken different approaches to personal searches. All HSBC has done is to restate their existing policy not to accept such searches. And Barclays has made clear the story is wrong and that they have in fact amended their policy to accept personal searches.

“The vast majority of the major mortgage lenders — 9 out of the top 10 — do accept personal searches. Personal searches are not new — they have already operated successfully in the market for over a decade and currently make up around 45% of the marketplace.

“Solicitors therefore routinely accept these searches and in fact commissioned more than 650,000 personal searches on behalf of their clients in 2006 alone [according to the Council of Property Search Organisations].

“But sellers, HIP providers, agents and conveyancers are free to use either Local Authority searches or personal searches. The introduction of HIPs has in fact brought in stringent regulations for private search companies — compulsory insurance for private search companies, robust redress arrangements for buyers and sellers and financial protection in the event of a company going out of business. This significantly improves the protection for buyers and sellers compared to previous arrangements. There is no reason why lenders or solicitors should not have confidence in accepting personal searches.”

Bernard Clarke from the Council of Mortgage Lenders said:

“I think that most lenders are aleady accepting [personal searches] and that as time goes on, as companies and lenders are persuaded that these private searches are just as reliable as those from local authorities, then more lenders will move to accept them.”