With regard to the letter from Mr Gafford in the Gazette of 4 March, I am quite frankly amazed that a firm might believe a quote of £600 plus VAT would secure a conveyancing matter at a price of £167,000.

High street firms such as ours in the north of the country have in the last 10 years been unable to charge any more than half of this amount, such are the competitive pressures placed on us by the fees offered by online conveyancing factories. Many of those competitors of course are licenced conveyancers, who are able to secure volume work by referral without having quite such obstructive regulatory rules on referrals as those faced by solicitors. Where there is volume, lower fees will work.

I am frequently offered opportunities by panel managers to take on conveyancing. The most recent offer was to charge a fee of £350 plus VAT, with £200 plus VAT going to the referrer, thus netting us £150 plus VAT for transactions up to £300,000. Remortgage work has been offered to us with fees as little as £35 plus VAT! The firm Mr Gafford refers to as netting £220 plus VAT should consider itself lucky.

The only way firms will continue to survive in the conveyancing market, I am afraid, is to do conveyancing on a high-volume, low-cost-per-case basis. Such volume can only be generated by referral and the SRA would do well to ensure its rules provide a level playing field between solicitors, licenced conveyancers and other professionals in the industry.

Matthew Maiden, partner, Bilton Hammond, Mansfield