More than a third of home buyers no longer trust conveyancers recommended by estate agents.
Research among 2,000 buyers and sellers by proptech firm When You Move – which provides a portal for agents to find and compare conveyancers for clients to approve and for all parties to track the transaction online – found that 38% of home buyers said they don’t trust legal service referrals from estate agents.
This was due to concerns about bias and questions over how good the conveyancer would actually be.
However, 16% said they would still go with the referral of their estate agent for a property lawyer, as sourcing one themselves is inconvenient and time consuming.
The research comes as the whole question of referral fees comes under the spotlight, with the Government considering an outright ban and industry regulator NTSEAT currently running a survey among agents.
The aim of the research was to delve into the biggest bugbears of a property transaction, with 29% feeling customer service dropped once an offer was accepted – although most agents would say that this is when the work begins.
Most criticism went towards the speed and service of conveyancers, with 36% finding the legal processing of their property transaction the most dissatisfying part of buying and selling a home.
Almost a fifth said they have had to take time off work to chase up conveyancers, while 29% said they had to speed up the process themselves by chasing for updates.
Similarly, 21% said they would not use the same lawyer that they’ve used previously due to their poor customer service, with 25% claiming lawyers offered the lowest level of customer service that they have ever encountered for such a major transaction.
The experience is so bad for some that 12% said they have wanted to buy or sell a home for a while, but instead chose not to, as they were put off by a long and arduous legal process.
Simon Bath, founder of When You Move, said: “With the results showing a clear deficit between the choice available and the trust people have in making the right decision, this report should serve as a call to action across the industry to bring about a more reliable delivery of customer service.”
Bath said the When You Move service is free for agents to use and pays a referral fee on completion funded by a portion of the buyer or seller’s charge.
With the commission for completing a sale worth far more than a referral fee it’s basic good sense for agents to make referrals to conveyancers who will get the sale through to completion rather than one who’ll slip them a few quid for the intro to make up for the fact their service isn’t one that naturally attracts business.
“Don’t you worry Robert, I’ll pop down the civic centre in my lunch time” was the sort of service that won Keith more business than any amount of money.
I don’t think I ever had a late key release using his firm, for some reason we were always at the front of his priority list and I always thanked him for that. Genuine appreciation and respect is a powerful motivator. Its a nice one too.
That’s the thing about firms who rely heavily on Trustpilot. Guessing at the number probably 95% or more sales are made by firms who don’t have Trustpilot and moreover don’t need Trustpilot. The fact the have a strong #local presence is enough.
(Soz and all that, more opinionated “arrogance” from Robert May. Please advise; is that post is more arrogant than the one on Friday?)
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You make sense Robert. All we really, really need to see the back of are the cheap low quality conveyancers giving away half their fee in referrals and only doing 1/3 of the job.
I’m sorry but I can’t spot any arrogance!!
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Not sure if this research was about referrals or conveyancing? With regard to the latter:
Room for improvement I agree, but bearing in mind that the conveyancing process is complicated, important, undervalued and a complete mystery to most home movers (and some agents) not a complete disaster.
64% did not find the legal processing of their property transaction the most dissatisfying part of buying and selling a home.
80% did not have to take time off work to chase up their conveyancer.
71% did not have to chase for updates.
79% might use the same lawyer.
75% did not claim lawyers offered the lowest level of customer service that they have ever encountered for such a major transaction.
88% not put off buying or selling a home for a while.
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OKAYYY… someone walk me through this one, please.
A company making their living out of solicitor referrals (and thereby either pushing up the price of the conveyancing fee even higher, or reducing the conveyancers’ profitability levels to sevenpence per case – with the resultant lack of time, care and attention that this often brings) has produced a ‘survey’ that confirms buyers & sellers don’t trust referrals and know that they get **** service from the ‘recommended’ conveyancers.
Actually – scrub the request for help.
Makes perfect chuffin’ sense.
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