Report comment

I am involved in what seemed at the outset to be a straightforward sale transaction with no chain and no mortgages. The process started well over 12 months ago and it is still not clear when the transaction will exchange and complete. The availability of e-conveyancing would have made no difference to this situation. It is the human element that is the issue - in particular, a buyer's solicitor who sits on everything for weeks at a time and a seller's solicitor who only bothers to ask questions of the buyer's solicitor when prompted by the client. This is notwithstanding glowing promises on both firm's websites about their efficiency and attention to detail.

Both buyer and seller are keen to get the deal concluded and so are mightily frustrated by the 'laws delays'. The idea that e-conveyancing would somehow provide a cure for such inertia/poor customer service is laughable. Solicitors need to have satisfactory, high-quality human and administrative systems in place before anyone tries to foist the technical wizardry of e-conveyancing on them.

So, Mr Conway, I must politely beg to differ with your comment that "Lawyers like to deal with conveyancing quickly..." They may only get paid at the end of the transaction but I bet the fees that are chargeable will be much higher if the transaction can be strung out and, in the meantime, the accounting systems will treat the transaction as WIP for P&L purposes.