Price is such an important part of choosing any product or service that I fully understand why there can be such a focus on it.
Conveyancing, of course, is not immune from a cost comparison or review and, in that regard, I read with interest some recent data put out by the Legal Services Board.
It suggested that 36 per cent of conveyancing providers had put up their prices over the past year, with leasehold sale legals increasing (on average) by 7 per cent and freehold up by 3.7 per cent over the same period. The corresponding change for purchases was 19.9 per cent for leasehold and 18.8 per cent for freehold.
I can understand why the LSB is focusing on the price of conveyancing in this way – it wants to be transparent about the average costs involved and give consumers an idea of what they might have to pay. However, these are just average costs and advisers are at an advantage here in that they can use platforms like our own at any time to review conveyancing costs from multiple operators.
That’s clearly important but it doesn’t really tell the whole story, especially during a period when the market is effectively booming but with the added complications of Covid-19, remote working and the impact all of this is having on service.
There’s no doubt that for some cases there has to be an expectation that securing exchange and completion may take a little longer in the current environment. However, that pressure to perform is heightened by the stamp duty holiday and the need to secure completion by the end of March next year in order to acquire the saving.
I don’t think any conveyancing firm is not fully aware of these pressures and the need to respond. However, there is also an opportunity for advisers to take control of the conveyancing and to steer clients in a direction that not only secures them competitively priced conveyancing but gives them the very best chance of benefiting from the holiday.
Advisers will be able to walk the client through the options available and to highlight that cheapest may not necessarily be best in this environment. If it comes to spending a bit more on the conveyancing to secure a much larger stamp duty saving, it’s really a no-brainer.
However, advisers have to lead this conversation and offer this advice.
Mark Snape is managing director of Broker Conveyancing
