Huge vote of confidence for conveyancing solicitors
Thursday 20 August 2009 by Catherine Baksi
Conveyancing solicitors were given a resounding vote of confidence by the public this week as unpublished research seen by the Gazette revealed ‘stratospheric’ levels of satisfaction among consumers.
Some 93% of clients said they were happy with their solicitor’s performance. This comprised 65% who were ‘very satisfied’, and 28% who were ‘satisfied’. Only 5% said they were ‘dissatisfied’.
The survey of public attitudes to conveyancing services, which was based on interviews with more than 1,000 consumers, was conducted by independent polling company ComRes on behalf of the Solicitors Regulation Authority last December.
ComRes described satisfaction levels with solicitors as ‘stratospheric’, noting that the findings ‘indicated that those with experience of using a solicitor for conveyancing work recently are not just happy, but very happy’.
The complaints of the ‘incredibly low’ number of people who said they were dissatisfied related to the length of time taken to complete work without explanation for the delay, failure to be kept informed, poor communication and failure to tell them about the other side’s progress.
The report found that just over a fifth of the public had used a solicitor for conveyancing work in the past five years. The most popular factor for consumers in choosing a solicitor was whether they had used them before (27%), followed by a recommendation from someone they knew (24%).
The research showed that people were unlikely to use a solicitor recommended by an estate agent, with 40% saying they would not. That figure rose to 50% where the recommending agent would receive a commission as a result.
Of those who had instructed a conveyancing solicitor in the past five years, 80% said they were fairly (23%) or very (57%) likely to go back to them in the future.
Richard Barnett, chairman of the Law Society’s conveyancing and land law committee, said solicitors generally give very good service and standards improved year on year.
The full research results will be published on the SRA’s website in September.
Comments
Conveyancing Survey
I think the timing is the key to this lack of complaints. It stands to reason that with the volume of transactions so low in the current climate, Conveyancers should have much more time on their hands to spend working on their workloads. Therefore there should be no excuse for delays.
As a Conveyancer with more than 25 years experience who became completely disillusioned with the profession after an eye-opening spell in a "factory firm", I would suggest that this is misleading, and should not be viewed with complacency or satisfaction. Once the market picks up again, if the errors of the past have not been learned, and the incompetent, corner-cutters in the profession have not been stamped on, or at least brought to book for all their misdemeanours of the past, complaints will rise again.
Now should be the time for the Law Society to be acting and taking on a full review of the way the whole Conveyancing system works, and how Solicitors approach obtaining business, and then carrying out the work. There are many many flaws as we all know.
Conveyancing Survey
I completely agree with Andrew Murphy's comments. Survey's are useful information but completely ignore the environment and timing in which it's taken when publishing the results.
In addition to economic factors, as a profession we have seen changes taking place in the last decade which has not been made pursuant to proper consultation with practitioners and as a result, subjected practitioners to considerable pressure as they struggle to keep up with the demands of a huge workload. The present economic climate will have given some breathing space to those still in employment, allowing them more time with their work, make less errors and raise client satisfaction as a result.
Perhaps comparative results can be published after the country recovers from this recession for periods leading up to the recession, during and after so that we can see the true picture and how client satisfaction / quality can really be maintained?