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I gave up ‘coal face’ conveyancing nearly ten years ago. At that time I was running a small office for a two partner firm in the South West. When I left, I asked the partners if they were going to keep the profitable office open. They said don’t be silly, we would have to employ two people to do the amount of hours and work you do. The penny dropped, more fool me.

My working day consisted of a 5.00 am start, four hours of ‘proper’ uninterrupted legal work before the doors and phone lines opened. Eight hours of fending off (in many cases) clients with no appointments, and numerous chasing phone calls from, brokers, agents (from anywhere in the chain) and clients (many of whom phoned more than once a day for updates because they were told to by the agent). Then another two hours of ‘proper’ uninterrupted legal work before going home. Add on to that between another five and ten hours on a weekend and you hopefully get the picture.

Ten years down the line and I believe things are worse, with more bureaucracy and red tape to deal with than ever before and consultation after consultation etc that conveyancers are expected to respond too.

The Government, with their Call for Evidence, is currently looking at ways to Improve the Home Buying Process. Let’s hope they include a thorough examination of what conveyancers are expected to do. Bearing in mind for example, that they are not valuers, tax experts/collectors, or fraud prevention experts.

I have a meeting with the DCLG today. Bring it on!