Remember a few years ago when Cher was going on about turning back time and she apologised for being too proud to tell us that she was both wrong and sorry, in equal measure. Many of the complaints made by lawyers about other lawyers, and by agents about lawyers, typically refer to that fact that it used to be much quicker to buy and sell properties and technology is making things worse.
There’s no denying that transactions were quicker 20 years ago, but society has changed and the reality is that the pressures have never been as high as it is now. We see first-hand how people are rushing to judgement; we recently received a one star Google review, because our client couldn’t use our portal as they didn’t have Wifi and told us we should have used email, despite the fact it’s the number one method for fraud.
The problem with harking back to the good old days is that we tend to gloss over the problems we had. Like rickets and polio.
Things just take too long now
If you want to grow your social media audience, just ask the question; “why, with all the technology we have today, does it take so long to buy a house”. At this point, the online heavens will open, with agents complaining about lazy and incompetent lawyers and lawyers complaining that every lawyer with more than six months experience has moved to Barbados and they have been reduced to playing Judy against Punch’s clown.
Overlooking the lack of evidence showing experienced lawyers have retired and can now mostly be found in high street charity shops, there does seem to be an issue with a lack of experience today. This could be due to a number of factors; the pandemic resulting in new lawyers not getting the supervision needed, experienced lawyers moving to self-employed consultancy so they can afford to run fewer cases, resulting in higher caseloads elsewhere so experienced staff don’t have enough time to train junior colleagues.
Whatever the reason, transaction timescales are taking longer and it seems to only be going in one direction.
Genie is out of the bottle
Although we cannot turn back time, being in denial on how to fix it doesn’t help either. In the recent “The Road Ahead” survey by Landmark, it stated that only 34% of lawyers saw that digitisation of the process was a priority, down from 51% the previous year. This suggests either lawyers have already adopted new technology, or more likely, that they have dismissed it as not bringing enough value.
This is not a good look for lawyers and unfortunately plays into the hands of those that claim they do not want to change. The reality is that investment in technology is woefully low amongst small and medium sized law firms, and for good reason. When working flat-out on caseloads, stopping the machine running to investigate new technology is simply not an option.
Which is why, the government’s recent announcement of a pilot to investigate whether collecting data at the start of the process and sharing it with others was met with such derision from lawyers. The reality is that it’s like telling mountaineers that the provision of a new bus service from Kathmandu to the foothills of Everest is going to enable them to get to the summit in hours.
Make no mistake, this proposed concept will not speed up the home-buying and selling process by itself.
Don’t worry – technology IS the answer … and it’s coming
Instead, we must look at the extraordinary technology developments happening today that will change how we conduct conveyancing. In 2025, the phrase “Conversational Singularity”, the concept where you talk to a computer without realising it’s not human, will come to the fore. It’s achieved by linking voice technology to artificial intelligence that uses large language models (eg GPT ) and a database, so you can have a conversation with a machine using content based on stored data.
Customer service firms are already using this and it won’t be long before law firms start see the benefit. If we can train a machine on thousands of conveyancing cases, analysing the documents and the resultant enquiries and answers they have generated in the past, and combine this with the ability to communicate with a human over the telephone or by email, this will bring us the improvements we all crave.
Which is why it’s important to start to capture data in a way that lawyers can use it effectively, and despite Cher’s convincing rhetoric, going forward does start with a first step – but we must acknowledge it’s not the gamechanger some think it is.
Peter Ambrose is the owner of The Partnership and Legalito
A few years ago? Cher released that track 36 years ago!
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There is not one conveyancer who does not wish for conveyancing to be more efficient.
The problem is that the technophiles have been promising jam tomorrow for decades.
Every day the reality of why transactions have slowed when certain businesses are involved is clear but the technophiles do not wish to accept it.
We could have completely digitised data tomorrow and the transaction times of certain big inefficient businesses would be no better. Those big businesses hope that digitisation and technology will make their business model work efficiently.
If we want improvements now then not dreaming about what digitisation might produce and actually dealing with reality would make more sense.
More qualified conveyancers actually handling the conveyancing from the start and an eradication of Standard Enquiries would help.
Qualified conveyancers assisted by technology, rather than technology alone, is the answer.
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Peter I am sure you are right that there is no one single piece of software that will answer all conveyancing matters in one go. I am also sure that technology that makes all the information about a property available to potential buyers initially then is available to the buyer and their solicitor in one place on the day that sale is agreed must help.
One question I asked recently and yet to have a clear answer, is how much time do conveyancing solicitors spend conveying and how much gathering the information they require to do the conveyancing?
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This popped up on NarcissistIn the other day.
The answer given and not contested was that on average each client requires around 8 hours.
Over their 6 month conveyance…..
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Hey Matt – I think you’re reasonably near the mark here – for my business we estimated around 10 hours per case. But that’s doing actual work – other time is soaked up with making calls that aren’t answered, sending emails that aren’t replied to, waiting for documents from third parties etc etc
However. It’s very difficult to measure because conveyancing is [typically] fixed fees, which means that most law firms don’t use time recording. But you need to multiple that by average case count to figure this out.
I hear figures ranging from 45-120 cases per lawyer ..
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Here’s my tuppence.. It could be that when the gaps between rungs on the property ladder were narrower, it was easier and quicker to complete a chain. Now, as the property ladder has effectively stretched—where 5% on £100K is far less than 5% on £400K—the number of people able to move up a rung has reduced.
The delays in conveyancing may often be blamed for transaction bottlenecks when, in reality, the root cause is a slower-moving chain due to affordability constraints. If fewer people can make the financial leap to their next home, the process of completing chains is naturally going to take longer—regardless of how efficient the legal process is.
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If fewer people are buying then exactly how does this slow the process?
Moreover, exactly how does the gap in values affect it in terms of timescales? If somebody is approved to borrow £100k or £500k exactly how does this lengthen the conveying process?
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It now takes longer to identify the person needed to complete a chain, and in many cases, the final link isn’t even on the market when the rest of the chain starts forming.
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To be fair Robert. That’s always been the case.
It takes roughly 8 weeks for a chain to form.
It is absolutely no different now than 20 or 30 years ago.
Affordability hasn’t changed anything.
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“Overlooking the lack of evidence showing experienced lawyers have retired and can now mostly be found in high street charity shops, there does seem to be an issue with a lack of experience today. This could be due to a number of factors; the pandemic resulting in new lawyers not getting the supervision needed, experienced lawyers moving to self-employed consultancy so they can afford to run fewer cases, resulting in higher caseloads elsewhere so experienced staff don’t have enough time to train junior colleagues.”
This is a good point, though the “work from home” phenomenon does not help either. People are not getting proper training as a result of that, I know of one conveyancer who works three hours away from her office and because the drive is too far never attends. How can she be gettting proper supervision and training, and that is only one example? Whilst the growth is consultancy is the elephant in the rooom for the future of conveyancing and if not addressed sooon will be a huge effect on where we go in the future. A serious discussion for another day though.
As for conveyancing before the Legal Services Act came in, it was quicker and way more professional and people who were not there cannot and should not try to make comparisons. Yes we did not have to identify clients and deal with all sorts of requirements like climate change and source of funds now foisted on us, but conveyancers were actually trained properly and knew the job and most importantly spoke to each other. Remarkably that made the job so much easier.
Rather than bring in technology to ‘improve’ conveyancing, which it is clear from looking at firms who use it now that it will not, there is a lot to be said for going back to the days prior to the Legal Services Act. Then we had a Land Registry that worked, a profession that was professional, law firms that were not owned by hedge funds and venture capitalists out to make a quick buck at the expense of good customer service, conveyancing that was actually carried out by people working in this country, and there was no interference in the profession from outsiders claiming to know better but putting their own business interests first to the detriment of those actually doing the job. Radical I know, and no doubt the technophiles will bleat, but anything has to bbe better than today’s mess of competing agendas.
Most important ly let us remember it is the clients who are the most important people in all this. They always seem to be forgotten by the people trying to grab their piece of the pie.
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Amen to this
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And the 21st century client expects a different service to the 20th century client.
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They might expect 21st century conveyancing to be executed differently.
‘Service received’ received is a matter of perception however. The judge, jury and executioner on this is the paying client.
‘Service Provided’ is different. And has a different definition and wholly different perspective.
It’s this that is often lost in the discussion.
‘Service’ can be interpreted in different ways but used interchangeably in the conversation.
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It is likely that the consultancy model will crash and burn. Lack of training, supervision, and basic human contact (mental health and wellbeing). One big claim, and the tower of cards will collapse.
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