Back in October, as the housing market —particularly purchasing — really heated up just prior to Lockdown 2, three organisations —the Conveyancing Association, the Society of Licensed Conveyancers and Bold Legal Group — issued an open letter urging all market stakeholders to be patient with conveyancers as they worked through cases.
Three months on amid Lockdown 3, one suspects that, with the stamp duty holiday deadline not far away, a stronger message may be issued. Indeed, some conveyancing firms may have taken matters into their own hands. I constantly hear anecdotal evidence from advisers regarding firms — not on our panel, I may add — with which it is incredibly difficult to communicate.
That got me thinking about our own role as a ‘middle person’, both as advisers and as a conveyancing distributor, because there are similarities. And the reasons why clients come to advisers are the very same reasons why advisers should use a conveyancing distributor, particularly one with strong relationships with specialists.
Of course, getting the right product and service is a very strong reason to use an adviser/distributor, but there’s also a lot to be said about the protection this affords, and the ability to ensure that both clients and advisers never have to do any of the chasing.
I see a big part of our role as being that business in the middle; the one that means advisers don’t feel the need to chase, not just because they’re using a specialist with the best conveyancers, which know what they’re doing and can get through the case in line with expectations, but also because — as the letter above alludes to — we want to protect the conveyancer.
Having that relationship means we can chase where necessary. We can relay the information to both sides in the right and timely way, so there’s no need for the kind of delay that might be engendered by conveyancers feeling they have to respond to everything, and ultimately communication breaking down to a point where neither side can trust the other.
That’s what all the chasing amounts to, and it becomes even greater with a deadline like 31 March on the horizon, with the pressure rising because you perhaps don’t trust the firm you’re using to get the job done.
Far better to pick a trustworthy partner at the outset and place your business with a conveyancer that not only has the expertise but comes via a distributor that can take on a lot of the heavy lifting. It’s much easier to be patient when you’re starting from that foundation.
Mark Snape is chief executive of Broker Conveyancing
