A claim that conveyancers must hurry up in order to avoid estate agencies going out of business has been met with widespread rejection and disdain from those within the profession.
It was suggested on Thursday by Paul Sams, Partner and Head of Property at Dutton Gregory Solicitors, that many of the firm’s peers were “taking too long to raise enquiries and progress cases collaboratively”.
He even went as far as to say he “doesn’t understand why any lawyer would want to slow the process down or turn it into a combat sport”.
This, he said, leads to fall-throughs, uncertainty, and slower transactions, adding that if estate agencies fold as a result it is “a blow for the overall health of the housing market”.
As was foreseeable, Sams’ claims were met with widespread rejection from conveyancers on social media and within comment sections. Many described the ideas as “nonsense” and “utter rubbish”. “[It] amazes me how firms can be so derogatory about their own industry,” said the Chief Executive of one conveyancing comparison site.
“Is this an early April fools joke for next year?” asked one user. Another said:
“There has been a […] sustained period of boom [in] business in the last two years. If as a business you have failed to plan ahead and make sufficient contingency for such events, then sadly you must take responsibility for this yourself and not blame others.”
“In other news, people must pay more for conveyancing otherwise law firms will go out of business. PII has entered that chat,” said one solicitor, pointing out that it is not just agents who will go out of business if margins are squeezed too tightly.
Others suggested the issue was with agents recommending the wrong solicitors:
“Stop sending work to firms who pay referral fees as they are generally the ones who don’t otherwise get recommended.”
A separate comment read:
“Maybe if some agents are not so busy lining their pockets and actually recommend local solicitors who are familiar with the area, respond to correspondence, and actually answer the phone […] the delays they are talking about won’t happen. [You] don’t see these delays with a chain full of local solicitors! Happy clients, happy agents: not rocket science.”
It was also pointed out that the claims made by the firm ignored issues and delays that are outside the remit of conveyancers:
“To put the blame on conveyancers [and] solicitors […] is entirely wrong. I have multiple matters at the moment where agents are putting properties on the market without probate being granted, offers are being accepted, and sales are being agreed without complete chains […] and without source of funding being confirmed.
The vast majority of chains currently being delayed – certainly from my perspective – are because agents cannot do the basics. Frankly, agents have had it easy over the past couple of years and have seemingly lost the art of the sale.”
Today’s Conveyancer approached Paul Sams for his thoughts on the reaction with which his original claims were met. Here’s what he said:
“Wow, I am surprised by the emotional reaction to what is a very matter of fact truthful comment. Completing transactions is what this industry is all about. Clients get what they want – sold or moved in – then everyone gets paid.
The faster something goes through, the cheaper the costs involved of the same. That can be emotional cost as well as financial cost. It is not a difficult concept to understand.
I pointed out all parties need to work collaboratively. The reaction from other lawyers has been mixed, which does not surprise me, but the reaction from estate agents has only been positive. So much so that our new business team had a really busy day on the phones on Friday, from both agents who had read the same and members of the public as well.”
7 responses
“working collaboratively” blah blah
“”industry” blah blah
“the faster it goes through” blah blah
Estate agents should stop their obsession with referral fees and start acting like the property transaction is the most important thing and that the quality of the service is most important and that 6 months is the “average” if you refer to bulk conveyancers who employ monitor monkeys instead of people who use legal thinking.
You’ve made your bed so you lie in it.
Conveyancers need to disable computer protocol/management systems, which sadly do not have the ability to move transactions forward in a professional trained manner, but restrict movements to 1,2,3,4,5,6. In reality, a matter may proceed, 1,3,5,4,6. Experience and human control and ability has worked perfectly in the past. Also Agents simply have to find buyers for sellers, advise the relevant lawyers foe each side, then sit back and wait for their ludicrously inflated fees to be paid upon completion.
I agree I’m an agent and I have more fall throughs because of the slowness of conveyancers who seem to blame complications as the issue, I believe the work load is to much and conveyancers working from home is an issue
The problem now with the industry is so many conveyancers are relying on the agents for their business by way of referral fees. Pile em high firms in particular feel the estate agent is the client rather than the actual client, I have seen this so many times, so it’s not surprising this guy had lots of work from agents following his post! The industry is suffering for so many reasons, lack of experienced conveyancers, loss of good staff, difficult legislation, rising liabilities, we have to adhere to regulations, there are consequences of our actions unlike estate agents who have nowhere near the regulation we have. There are outside influences that govern the speed of the transaction and we, as conveyancers, are an easy target. There is absolutely no concept of respect anymore, the client should come first and their needs
Of course Mr Sams isn’t surprised at the reaction. He knows why he said what he did and the reaction was entirely what he wanted. For me as a conveyancer I personally was offended by the comments and I hope from his perspective he feels the press release was worth it.
For someone who has reduced the average time to completion in half to just 79 days with Zero fall through’s even this has shocked me.
The blame game has been instigated to drive a wedge between two parties that do work together yet there is still a canyon sized lack of understanding from both parties as to what their roles entail.
Working with good agents and brokers couple with a small number of non-corporate solicitors who work the file, not the computer, makes a huge difference in pushing the transaction to completion for the benefit of the client, something allot of people fail to appreciate.
I could go on for days about this.
Since when is it our job to stop estate agents going bust? When they have done their utmost to put many decent solicitors out of business by referring work to unqualified conveyancing farms.
You reap what you sow; don’t use the decent, experienced solicitors local to you? One day, they won’t be there any more and you will be stuck with the unqualified people who are glued to a case management system and can’t make decisions