Broker sympathy for conveyancing workloads is in short supply according to a poll by Groundsure, which shows that more than half of intermediaries blame these solicitors for transaction hold-ups during the pandemic and its aftermath.
Around 53% of brokers say conveyancers were not “unfairly maligned by the mortgage industry press during the pandemic” in a survey of 250 intermediaries by the property analytics firm. It found that 22% of brokers thought these lawyers were harshly treated.
The survey adds that 39% of brokers do not “feel sorry” for conveyancers who “tackled epic workloads during the pandemic mortgage boom”.
Property transactions hit a five-year high in the third quarter of last year, with the number of house sales jumping by 32% from the same period before the health crisis in 2019, according to property data business Search Acumen.
It adds that average workloads for conveyancing firms rose 15% to 80 cases in the third quarter, from 70 in the same period a year ago.
The average time it takes to sell a UK home has jumped 50% to 65 days compared to a year ago, while property exchanges have risen 5% to 139 days, according to data from TwentyEA released earlier this month.
Groundsure will present further findings on the conveyancing industry when chief operating officer Malcolm Smith gives the headline speech at the British Conveyancing Awards in central London tonight (21 March).
Smith says: “Our polling suggests some residual friction in the industry, left over from the febrile days of the pandemic property boom.
“That’s a shame as conveyancers were tackling huge volumes of cases at the time, and deserved some sympathy from their fellow mortgage professionals.”
“It’s clear that the different parties across the transaction need to understand each other’s pressures and especially the degree of scrutiny and due diligence that conveyancers have to sign off.”
However, its poll did show that 54% of brokers admitted that conveyancers had a tough time in 2022.
While 92% of brokers agree that “conveyancers are a vital part of the property transaction process”.
