Review: Conveyancing
Honesty remains the best policy for conveyancers Research by the property data company, Search Acumen, has revealed that conveyancing transaction volumes fell by 4% in the first three months of this year on figures for the previous quarter and by 6% on an annual basis, with completion rates within the industry reportedly growing by a mere 4% over the past two years. Moreover, as flat paced market conditions and a corresponding decline in consumer demand continues to stimulate fierce competition within the sector, the company’s latest Conveyancing Market Tracker report has also highlighted the growing trend towards consolidation at the upper reaches of the market, with larger firms sourcing their custom at the expense of smaller, or more localised, firms. Indeed, Search Acumen have confirmed that the number of active conveyancing practices in England and Wales has fallen markedly over the past few years, with 369 reported closures in the months between January and March alone. That leaves 3,961 remaining practices in total- a 9% fall on comparable figures for 2014 and the lowest recorded figures since the Land Registry began publishing its data. Yet, as intensifying competition and the rise of online conveyancing platforms continues to engender a shift towards cut-price business strategies and bargain basement package deals, so too are service levels within the industry coming under widening scrutiny, with the issue of poor or slow conveyancing services (in particular) being repeatedly highlighted as one of the reasons for increases in property fall-throughs. For example, recent research by the online conveyancing platform, When You Move, has revealed that a jaw-dropping 36% of surveyed property customers pinpointed the service they had received from their conveyancer as the most ‘dissatisfying’ part of the transaction process,
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MORTGAGE INTRODUCER
David Gilman partner in charge, Blacks Connect
AUGUST 2019
with 21% saying that they would never use the same solicitor again. Moreover, some property consumers were found to have experienced average service delays of seven to eight weeks as a result of absentee conveyancers, with one in four found to be away from their office at crucial periods of a transaction and 27% of clients left in the dark as to a possible return date- a grim statistic. But, perhaps the most damaging issue to the reputation of conveyancers in recent times has been highlighted by a Solicitors Regulation Authority report into the provision of leasehold information, with some 23% of firms found to have neglected explaining the difference between leasehold and freehold property’s to their clients and around 20% (or 1 in 5) of leasehold buyers found to have received little or no information from their solicitor as to the length of leases or the cost of associated fees - a failure, in other words, to provide the most fundamental levels of advice to prospective buyers and to prejudice an ability to make fully informed decisions. Indeed, the report has revealed that some firms had blithely assumed that clients already knew about leasehold issues or had been informed in advance by their estate agents- a scarcely credible state of affairs. Yet, quite apart from the obvious criticisms which these findings raise, they also help to convey a sense of ‘crisis’ in the ability of conveyancing firms to offer acceptable levels of service to their clients and to underscore the work that solicitors perform as an impediment to timely property completions- a public relations disaster. However, there is also a strong argument to suggest that many conveyancers are being unduly criticised for delays or holdups which are ultimately beyond their control and are as much a victim of inherent procedural problems
or deficiencies as their clients. For example, the government guideline for local authority property searches is currently set at 10 working days, yet research conducted by Move IQ has established that many authorities are simply unable to meet this deadline, with some councils taking up to 25, 44 or even 95 days to respond! Moreover, once we factor in the usual conveyancing checklist of forms, examinations, surveys, restrictions, consents, enquiries and drafts (etc, etc), as well as the blood curdling possibility of a breakdown in a property chain or the inevitable hold-ups in corresponding party paperwork, we can see that the time-consuming, laborious and (frankly) archaic context of property transferal in this country is central to an understanding as to the possibility of delays. Of course, blockchain technologies and third party search providers can be useful in speeding up aspects of this process and of minimising unnecessary delays. However, the high costs needed to implement options such as these may be prohibitive for many firms (especially those at the lower end of the scale), while a single handed reliance on technology in and of itself could be seen as playing into the hands of organised criminals or online fraudsters. By the same token, a reliance on cost cutting and low-price deals (a race to the bottom if ever there was) runs the risk of compromising service standards and of exacerbating existing problems within the industry. Which means that a greater emphasis on transparency and the information that solicitor’s pass to their clients should be considered as paramount: engendering a service which is based on the (sometimes unpalatable) realities of conveyancing as opposed to a ‘bargain’ model which highlights economy over quality. Indeed, at a time of sluggish market activity and heightened competition, honesty may very well be the best policy for conveyancers to pursue if they wish to avert a genuine crisis of confidence in their services as well as a reminder that sometimes the simplest solutions can be the most effective. www.mortgageintroducer.com