The UK’s ‘archaic’ conveyancing process could benefit from a major shake-up to help speed up property transactions, according to Russell Quirk, co-founder of ProperPR.
Reflecting on the existing relationship between estate agents and conveyancers, he believes that there is plenty of room for improvements.
He said: “Conveyancing was initiated as process by Henry VIII and in my opinion it hasn’t changed since. Since its inception, conveyancing, which is the conveying of a property from one person to another, has stayed largely the same.
“I won’t deny that the process has become more complex because of course we now have more search information to be concerned about, liaising on mortgages, AML, politically exposed people and so forth.
“However, what conveyancers have done is just stick to the same archaic process, adding things on so that is becoming more cumbersome and more protracted, and still insisting on doing everything consecutively.”
Quirk points to recent research carried out by his PR firm regarding transaction times, which found that typically offer to completion in certain places can take around six months for a transaction to go through, up from about four months pre-Covid.
He continued: “I’m sure every agent can relate to the scenario where they sell a property, get a lawyer instructed by way of memorandum of sale, property information questionnaire goes out by post three of four days later from the seller’s lawyer to the seller, eventually that goes back five or six days later.
“Then a contract might be issued, then the buyer’s lawyer issued the same standard 56 enquiries they issue on every single purchase, which takes a couple of weeks to be bounced back.
“In the meantime, nothing else happens in the way of search for instance being initiated because the lawyer decides on the buyer’s side that they don’t to go ahead with the search until there is a mortgage offer, which can’t happen until there is a valuation, which will take three of four weeks for the mortgage forms and survey fee to be paid.
“Essentially what we end up with is a consecutive archaic draconian process, that takes a long time.”
Quirk believes that a key solution to the conveyancing process is to bring the process into estate agency.
He explained: “I think that agents should bring a licenced conveyancer into their business under the employ of the agency. That conveyancer would then be obligated to be much more in tune with the estate agent and understand their processes. They would also be visible and accessible to consumers and would form part of the sales progression team.
“It seems crazy that you have an estate agent and a conveyancer that have the same goal but have to have two separate entities at logger heads to do the same thing. It is like two footballers running towards the same goal arguing with each other, rather than working together.
“Having an in-house conveyancer could be a service that agents could use in their agency to help consumers and attract more business packing the conveyancing under one roof.
“I am not saying we should do away with conveyancers, but rather an integration between conveyancing and estate agents working together for a common purpose.”
Comments (13)
Not an unusual arrangement in Scotland where a large portion of agents are Solicitor Estate Agents. Always surprised me it wasn’t more prevalent in England.
Yes, but the solicitors generally own/run the business not the other way round.
Standard lawyers reply ” i have sent an e mail and am waiting for a reply”
If they just leaned to pick up a home and ring each other rather than send a e mail the whole process would be much faster
Jokers all
Saying ‘why don’t they just pick up the phone’ may sound like a really cutting jibe, but anyone who actually knows what they are talking about knows it really isn’t that simple.
1. All representations need to be in writing to be relied upon under the standard conditions, so anything meaningful needs to be stated in writing anyway
2. We act on our client’s instruction, so we cannot make decisions unilaterally on a phone call. We would need to confirm with them before any outcome could be reached
Sorry but it is that simple.
When I was an agent I would often hear the
Standard lawyers reply ” i have sent an e mail and am waiting for a reply”
I would then pick up the phone to the other solicitor and he would say he would reply straight away.
If the e mailing lawyer had just picked up a phone it would have stopped me having to ring lawyer 1 and then lawyer 2 and speed up the process.
I am a house developer myself.
The lawyer I use picks up a phone.
That he why is is quick and why he gets my business.
I know you act on clients instructions.
Again the lawyer I use rings his client discusses the issue with the client and asks the client to confirm at once by e mail so he can progress the sale.
It really is that simple
You sound like a very squeaky wheel Jan, pushing everyone else’s case down the pile.
So you are annoyed that you, as sale progressor, had to progress a sale? Out of context examples don’t hold much water on a macro scale. Many people prefer emails as it leaves a clear audit trail – if an email is ignored then so too will a phone call. That there is the real issue
Here come those hand-grenades again…
1) Why is it that everyone blames everyone else for breaking the system? Here’s a counter-view, every party is a little bit guilty. From agents to conveyancers, lenders to local authorities, land registry to management co’s, leaseholders to new homes builders, search providers and yes, buyers and sellers.
2) Why would everyone break the system? Because their incentives aren’t aligned, they don’t actually all want the same thing, at the same time
3) But it used to be much easier? Erm, yer. And 55 years ago it was perfectly legal to down 10 pints at the pub then whiz up the M1 at 120mph. Times, legislation, working practices and dare I say it, ways of extracting cash from the transaction (let’s talk about ground rent on a 5 year old 4 bed detached on a newly built estate..) have changed it. Do we like it? Depends if you’re on the list above benefitting from it
4) Conveyancers / Estate Agents (delete as appropriate) can change it and make it better? Individual companies can (and usually do) work effectively together, but they’ll only ever touch the tip of the iceberg. The Conveyancing process is simply too reliant on 3rd parties (again, see list above) and their own incentives
5) OK smartypants, how do you suggest this gets sorted? All parties need an incentive to collaborate (and no, it isn’t about the consumer moving home, for some of the parties above, there isn’t actually an incentive for the move to take place..), that probably looks like government legislation, which isn’t going to happen in the short-medium term
“Quirk’s point is fundamentally well founded and follows recent thinking (also that the conveyancing process should be pulled through from purchaser end rather than pushed through from vendor end) but it is behind the curve. Current legal tech enables increasing numbers of law firms to move processes through much more quickly. Take remote ID verification for example; in previous years law firms would require a client to attend their office with their documents. Now that process can be completed in a few clicks from separate locations.
Those tech innovations enable client, agent, mortgage lender and solicitor to interact much more efficiently and crucially, allow the client to see at what stage their process is and who/what is holding it up.
Estate agency PI premiums are some of the lowest in the professional sector, whereas SRA and CLC registered law firms are some of the highest. This is for a reason. Insurers (who have to be knowledgeable because they are taking the risk) understand that the agent’s task is largely process driven and there is very little professional duty of care present – as it relates to risk – in their opinion – which is how rates are set.
Understanding the high standards that exist within both sectors, the raison d’etre of agents’ vs conveyancers is significantly different. An agent is appointed by their client to sell their house, obtain the best price and ultimately undertake some key tasks in ensuring that it is described and represented correctly – and interact with all parties so that it goes through without fuss and on time (and yes, I know that this is a simplified version of events). The Solicitor has a duty of care to many parties – the client (seller or purchaser), the other side to the process (seller or purchaser), the lender, the land registry, plus a large array of participants in the process from search providers through to environmental professionals. The conflicts of interest are enormous and would be impossible to manage, plus to move that lot in house would require a fundamental change to the agents’ sector processes, responsibilities and culture.
“Agents are often pressed to sell properties quickly, and with the minimum of fuss – why shouldn’t they be? The aspect of “filthy lucre” – IE how professionals are all paid, is often an unpleasant one to many. There is no reason why a professionally run agent should not make very good money by working at speed to service their client’s needs, if they do it correctly. That is not usually in the interests of the professionals who have to make detailed complex searches, and sometimes make judgement calls on complex transactions – the two are mutually exclusive. Solicitors have to give undertakings regularly – to answer Quirk’s question you first have to understand how the undertaking process works, how it impacts upon the lawyer side of the equation and how it would shoot a combined entity in the foot if it actually worked in tandem. It’s this that puts his proposition into the long grass.
Finally, we deal with many highly difficult and complex claims matters in our business for clients on an increasing scale. Many of these are not actually the fault of the conveyancing firm, they are due to a disgruntled third party, client or other entity who have lost out, sometimes being not due to any errors, delays or omissions – it has more to do with the increasingly litigious nature of society and the conveyancer is stuck in the middle holding the file when the music stops. Do estate agents really want to be involved in this? Increasingly client money is being lost for example as it is being sent, due to hackers rather than errors. Sometimes that is catastrophic from the client as well as the law firms’ point of view. In that respect the estate agent’s community ought to be careful of what they wish for.” Jon Cook, PII Broker, QPI
“I would totally agree with what you have written Rob. Insurers also are wary of Conveyancers owned by Mortgage Brokers.
The perception is that undue pressure could be brought by the owners.” Professional Indemnity Insurance Broker
I agree with Rob that part of the problem is the complexity of our historic Land Law system but there are straightforward ways in which the transactional process can be improved to reduce time & remove delays by identifying potential problems early on. The initiatives around upfront information (material information) is definitely a step in the right direction & instructing conveyancers prior to agreeing a sale has proven to help. Many of us are still beating the drum about the benefits of sharing more information throughout the process that can inform the chain & provide more transparency with less likelihood of derailing a sale.
Russell’s still promoting this idea – it sort of makes sense but sort of doesn’t.
Fundamental issue is there are two sides to every deal.
Let’s get an answer to the question – who is on the other side of the deal and how do they get instructed – the buyer doesn’t have an agent! Unless the agent conveyancer acts both sides, but they can’t in one office. So single office agents can’t play.
And that’s just the simple flaw.
Plenty more where that comes from.
Lets incrementally improve the process but sorry, this is not the answer.
They may have the same goal, but there is a huge conflict of interest. The conveyancer has to dot every i and cross every t, not just for the buying client, but the lender client as well. The agent however is often not really concerned about a Deed of Variation, whether a boundary might be slightly out of place or the lack of a written right of way to the garage at the back (which has been used for donkeys years by the current owner). The pressure some agents would put on an in-house (employed) conveyancer to cut corners would be immense. In fact, the pressure some agents already put on their ‘pet’ conveyancers is immense.
Russell also maintains that conveyancers “didn’t staff up”, even though they could see the market was getting busier and busier! Very simple reason why, not enough conveyancers out there (and you don’t create a new conveyancer overnight), and it is pretty obvious why. Very few people would choose conveyancing as a career at the moment.
The process itself needs improving agreed, but one of the main problems is the complexity of the historic Land Law system in England & Wales. Henry the VIII may have been the initiator, will Charles III be the one to put things right? I don’t think so.