Talk to many who work in the conveyancing sector as specialists in their field and you’ll probably be struck by how much they say the job has changed in recent years.
What may seem a series of relatively simple tasks in order to get the client through to completion can be anything but, with the level of complexity having been ratcheted up, along with a far bigger burden being placed on individuals working in conveyancing.
And that is just for those who are specialists. If they are having to continually address this in terms of staff training, recruitment, focus and overall resource, and are still finding it challenging, then what must be happening in firms not of this ilk?
The level of complexity has been ratcheted up
This is, after all, a sector where literally thousands of firms carry out conveyancing every year. But that is not to say they carry out work on thousands of cases. Therein lies the trouble.
And consider the potential added complexity that can come with a chain of transactions, for example, where your client not only relies on the work of the conveyancer they have chosen but can be severely impacted by the work of many others.
And, as the saying goes in conveyancing, a chain proceeds at the speed of the slowest.
To-ing and fro-ing
This can clearly be a major issue for both adviser and client, particularly if you’ve chosen to have no involvement in sourcing a conveyancer for the client.
If even specialists are struggling, what of non-specialists?
They’ve gone down their own path, and are thus subject to a firm with someone working part-time, or someone who won’t let others work on their cases, or someone who is simply not up to speed with the array of complexities that can come with cases and clients today.
In all likelihood, if you have not provided conveyancing advice or the estate agent has not got involved, the client is likely to have ‘phoned a friend’ or asked a family member for a recommendation, or even just gone to the family solicitor they’ve always used, who might only carry out a handful of cases a year.
Give some of these firms anything more than a ‘vanilla’ residential case and you could be looking at a huge array of to-ing and fro-ing, coupled with an inability to understand the nature of the case. Ultimately this leads to a huge amount of delay and, potentially at some point, the need to start all over again with a different, hopefully specialist, firm.
Make sure clients go in the direction you have sent them, where you maintain your involvement
When it is specialist, highly experienced conveyancers who are talking about the increased burden on them — the greater array of cases that are beyond the norm, plus the increased number of tasks they now have to carry out — you know what is likely to be happening at non-specialist players when they come up against this. Answer: not a lot.
And non-specialists are unlikely to have the most up-to-date systems and processes; they are not likely to have access to digital technology that can speed everything up; they are not going to be the best at providing ongoing case tracking and communication for you and your client; plus, as you have no relationship with them, why would they be wanting to keep you happy?
Thousands of firms carry out conveyancing every year. But that is not to say they work on thousands of cases. Therein lies the trouble
Overall, the nature of conveyancing today means it’s too much of a risk to let your client go all Fleetwood Mac — they should not go their own way.
Instead, make sure they go in the direction you have sent them, where you maintain your involvement and where they’ll have the best chance of having their case completed in a timely manner.
And that goes for whether they’re a complex case or not.
Mark Snape is chief executive of Broker Conveyancing
This article featured in the March 2023 edition of MS.
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