At the time of writing, we are just a couple of weeks from the end-of-June stamp duty holiday deadline and I think it’s fair to say that conveyancing firms in particular are looking forward to its passing.

This has been an unprecedented period for all mortgage and property practitioners. But I suspect even the most ardent critic of the conveyancing sector may have a degree of sympathy for the level of work required during a time when office working hasn’t been possible and the deadline has exacerbated the stress for all concerned.

In that regard, I can’t help but feel rather disgruntled at the steady stream of stories, specifically in the consumer press, which can be described only as ‘conveyancer bashing’. These have tended to focus, in no particular order, on: the fees charged by firms, decisions to turn away work, the length of time it takes to get to completion, delays within the process, and many others.

The point is that it’s possible to justify all of these on numerous grounds.

Supply and demand

First, conveyancing fees have been incredibly low for many years and you don’t need to be an economist to know that increased demand plus limited supply tends to increase pricing. Not forgetting the fact that conveyancers have to be completely transparent with their pricing anyway, so the cost should not come as a surprise to any client.

Second, if as a conveyancing firm you recently received instructions from a client who was insistent their transaction must complete before the end of June, and there is no way on earth you can achieve this, what options do you have? It is against regulations to take on work you cannot complete, hence you have to turn it down.

As an addendum to this, the time it is currently taking, on average, to get to completion is more than 20 weeks.

There are only so many hours in the day, most of which are being worked

So, I fully understand that, if your client embarked on this journey more than five months ago and is still waiting to complete, they may be nervous. And, as 30 June gets ever closer, their stress levels will be increasing. But conveyancers will be working incredibly hard to get these transactions completed and in some areas their hands are tied.

Which leads us to current delays — whether that be local authority delays, search provider delays, getting-through-to-the-lender delays, working-with-other-conveyancing-firm delays, the list goes on.

All of these count towards a lengthy process and they relate to just the here and now, not to the inefficiencies inherent in the system, for which there are solutions that may take time to filter through.

Cry from the heart

Overall, we all know it’s a stressful period. No one wants to miss out on a considerable saving, and conveyancers are aware of this. But the workload has been immense; delays hinder the process, often through no one’s fault at the conveyancer; costs have risen due to the pandemic and need to be recouped; and there are only so many hours in the day, most of which are being worked.

It is against regulations to take on work you cannot complete

Finally, we should all try to remember it is human beings working these cases. It perhaps says something that the profession has felt the need to launch an initiative called ‘Be Kind We Care’ to support those working in conveyancing. It’s a sentiment that perhaps everyone should heed.

Mark Snape is chief executive of Broker Conveyancing