Report comment

Please fill in the form to report an unsuitable comment. Please state which comment is of concern and why. It will be sent to our moderator for review.

Comment

The problem with conveyancing is:-

1. Costs are a race to the bottom, with in some cases £400+VAT or under being charged for 8-12 weeks work.

2. Solicitors are overloaded with work, so that each solicitor has more files than they can possibly cope with

3. Estate Agents trying to get involved in the conveyancing process itself, and causing no end of confusion and problems

4. Clients who refuse to accept that you need sufficient time to actually do the work, and that you can't drop everything and, for example, deal with enquiries ten minutes after they have come in by e-mail, or exchange and complete 3 days after the client has "agreed" the same with the agent when the legal work isn't complete yet

5. "Team based conveyancing", where the other side are nothing more than unqualified paralegals who are also overloaded.

The biggest immediate impact that the SRA could have is to start going after Solicitors firms that overload their staff, and actually make it a regulatory breach to give your staff members too many files. Once the number of files goes down so you actually have time to hear yourself think, THEN service levels will improve immensely.

Your details

Cancel