Last week, Gavin Williamson’s suggestion to scrap GCSEs took me back to my school years and studying Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” I’m sure like many other readers, just the title brings back memories of Shylock’s plaintive speech about the injustices suffered by his race.
Having read the numerous emotional online posts from beaten-down conveyancers over the past few weeks, I thought there were lessons from that classic book to be drawn for today’s world.
Obviously, the last time I drew an historical comparison, I evoked the level of fury that made Brexit arguments look like a children’s tea-party squabble over pass-the-parcel. Despite Alexander Pope’s warning that “fools rush in where angels fear to tread” I figured, what the heck, if nothing else it’ll increase the number of comments.
Which, let’s face it, is what most people seem to want from PIE these days.
The point is, lawyers are the same as everyone else – they cannot perform miracles or see into the future, so why do people feel free to abuse them for not possessing such superpowers?
Flame retardant clothing required
The social experiment of people working from home has freed our clients from the usual distractions of the office, giving them ample time to focus on the inefficiencies of the home buying and selling business.
I am currently playing the role of firefighter, showing our lawyers which flames need to be doused first. Sadly, I’m much more Fireman Sam than Kirt Russell in Backdraft, so I don’t attract the levels of lust that the role normally attracts.
However, it does mean that I see first-hand the frustrations people are feeling with emotions running very high.
Last week alone we had three major flare-ups.
One person threatened to sue us because her lease does not allow her put down carpet on her wooden floor. Another threatened to take us to the small claims court unless we prove when we ordered the searches on her purchase. Finally, just for good measure, another accused us of running a scam operation and illegally holding her money.
As attention-grabbing actions, that last one was right up there.
Given that the number one reason why lawyers go into the industry is to try and help such people, it’s no surprise we are seeing so many tears being shed right now.
Drinking champagne and eating bonbons
When we explain about the pressure the industry is under, clients will complain that “they are busy too” suggesting they are coping considerably better than us in some sort of bizarre “Who’s The Busiest” competition. For anyone thinking of participating in this event, I should warn you it’s not particularly exciting and I’m not even sure what the winner gets as a prize.
I also need to point out that it’s not only clients who are taking part in this “Who’s The Busiest Person Tournament 2020.”
We had a five property chain due to exchange last Friday, but one lawyer left at 4.00pm, so it didn’t happen. This was obviously frustrating in as much as it reinforced the afternoon golfer-lawyer stereotype. However, what made it really depressing was the abuse we received from another lawyer in the chain who berated us for “sitting around doing nothing”.
This was not an isolated incident but it does show that in this particular war, green-on-green assaults are far more prevalent than the archaic, albeit evergreen, agent versus lawyer spats. The vast majority of agents that we work with are feeling similar pressures.
Sand in the gears
As I’ve said before, the conveyancing process isn’t broken, but it does rely on lots of people being efficient.
Which is what is causing the delays right now.
For example, when selling a property with a mortgage, the most efficient way to get a redemption figure is to call the lender. However, something that used to take 10 minutes now involves sitting on hold for up to two hours, which ties up the telephone line, blocking all calls to that person.
Trying to contact other lawyers to discuss a problem, or even get an exchange is tough. What in the past was routine, with so many lawyers now on hold or working from home on their mobiles, it is now a major challenge. Indeed, with some firms you can’t even get past the voicemail on their main phone line.
Now, before any lawyer thinks about jumping on the anonymous abuse bandwagon beneath this article, we’re struggling with the same issues ourselves. People can’t get to speak to our lawyers and our responsiveness is nowhere near where we’d like to be. Even our brilliant technology and 100% paperless operation cannot solve this problem.
Mind you, at least we’ve got Fireman Sam doing his best to put some grease into those sandy gears.
Conclusion
The anxiety that society is suffering from is being brought into sharp focus in the incredibly frustrating activity of house buying.
Forget healing the wounds of Brexit and the vaccine versus anti-vaxxer argument, now is the time for everyone to come together to bring respect and consideration to the players in our vital industry.
Which is why, when clients are demanding their pound of flesh, agents have a vital role in reminding them that lawyers are equally hurt by the accusations, threats and bullying as any other mere mortal.
Whilst I read this article with interest my comment is merely that the most frustrating thing from our experience is the number of solicitor companies who furloughed their staff. Without a doubt for the initial 3 weeks of the first lockdown there appeared to be shockwaves, it then just gathered momentum with houses selling at an extraordinary rate. It was irresponsible for firms to keep their staff furloughed when their clients were expecting them to be in. Those staff are now back but are entitled to their holidays. Problem is each firm did their own thing and whilst I appreciate one size does not fit all a more consistent approach would be helpful!! By the way this is not just solicitors, some agents and also the councils where local searches are produced did the same thing. The frustration is real abd as you said no winners
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It does appear that Peter might be a mere mortal after all. Well, his staff are, if not him.
However, I think the problem is greater than this article suggests. Last year many conveyancers were finding the job more stressful, time consuming and undervalued than ever. This year has massively escalated those feelings.
Following social media closely, as I do, it has become apparent that a significant number of conveyancer’s ae going to call it a day, for the sake of their own wellbeing. Many have said they will re-train and do something else. Most are not particularly well paid for the hours, responsibility and stress that goes with the job.
If the issues causing this behaviour aren’t dealt with, I can see there will be a serious shortage of conveyancers in the next one to two years, and that will do nothing to help improve/speed up the home buying and selling process.
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The most efficient way to get a redemption figure used to be to call the lender, what used to take 10 minutes now takes 2 hours.
Without saying so here is an indication of the problem a reluctance to change. It almost beggars comprehension that not a single stakeholder on any side of the problem has identified a problem that affects them all and worked out a solution.
Dear client, it will cost you £500 for us to get a redemption figure on your mortgage, without it we won’t be able to complete your sale. To save yourself £500 plus Vat please would you ask your mortgage provider to send us a redemption figure if we complete on….
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“I find if you ask the client to ring then suddenly the redemtion statement appears, it is very frustrating.” BLG Member, Online Forum, 8-12-2020
Problem is why, should the client have yo do what they are paying their coveyancer to do. There is no excusing the sloppy performance of many lenders right now.
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If it is that simple a text from the conveyancer to the client asking them to call breaks the circle of frustration and antogonism that clearly exists between conveyancers and mortgage lenders.
Don’t think of it as defeat, think of it as a victory over the beligerent lenders and you’ve defeated their sloppiness with a cunning and efficient workaround.
If a conveyancer asked me to something to oil the gears of a transaction I wouldn’t mind at all
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I prefer this style of guest writer – well-written,some content, some talking points rather than deliberate provocative cr@p (Messrs Quirk and Smith)
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Yes, agreed.
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As ever eloquent, honest and readable. But her are a few thoughts? One why do solicitors not use emails? Obviously they do – but as not as an accepted form of communication by the legal industry. Paper yes – Fax Oh yes … but email no.
Two – the property industry thanks to internet is transacted 7 days a week, pretty much 24-hours a day, why is the conveyancing of title in many cases – 9 to 1, 2 to 5.30 Monday to Friday.
Three – in 1988 and I remember it fondly we agents and solicitors got around 2 million exchanges though in a year, 32 years later, we have a bottleneck of around 400,000 plus, despite our friend technology doubling its reach annually. Might there be some tie up between modern business practices and how conveyancing is done.
Put another way if Amazon started trading today, would it use Fax machines, be open Monday to Friday with an hour for lunch and not accept emails, etc as ‘truths’. If it did use this model would its market cap be 1$ Trillion USD – probably not.
Do I think solicitors charge too little and do long hours yes, do I think they could streamline processes and make life easier yes.
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Emails are used by conveyancers all day and every day, when it is safe to do so. Which is more often than not.
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As I read this numerous quotes came to mind. In the end to be on the safe side I settled on this:-
“be sure your sins will find you out.”
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I guess I am the only one reading this that feels this shows how out of touch conveyancers really are.
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I don’t remember talking to a happy conveyancer post the first lock down, I have every sympathy with them given the liability they face for messing up vis a vis agents.
It has to said that the distance between poor, average and good is a chasm.
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What is very frustrating is a purchaser’s solicitor making unreasonable demands and asking stupid questions, so delaying the process by weeks – when they acted as for the vendor when it was sold the time before. We appreciate that it is tough having staff not all under the same roof, with some still working from home and clerical staff working in the evening, but per Andrew Stanton’s figures, if sales used to average 6-weeks in 1988 when there were 2 million transactions, why are they taking over 12-weeks with modern technology and only 20% of those transaction levels?
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