Diary of a High Street Conveyancer; 11th October 2021

I was listening to the radio earlier and there was an actress being interviewed. She was asked about theatres being closed during lockdowns and how it now felt to be back on stage.  She told the interviewer that she loved her work, she loved acting and it was a pleasure to be back on stage performing in front of people. 

It made me think about conveyancing. However hard the last eighteen months have been for conveyancing solicitors and however stressful we have found it, there must be elements of the work which we enjoy.

So here are my top ten and I hope that many of you will agree with me and have the same or similar in your top ten about why we love  conveyancing, some of which (especially those which relate to clients) are to do with the thrill that we get from having happy clients; while other probably fall into the category of ‘little wins,’ like finding a five pound note in your winter coat when you put it on for the first time after nine months of it hanging in the wardrobe!

Feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments below…

1. The phone call to the client to tell them that we are ready to proceed – all searches are in order and all enquiries have been answered and we can now start to discuss completion dates
2. The phone call to the client to tell them that we have exchanged contracts and  completion is set for the day they wanted
3. The phone call to the buying client on the day of completion to tell them that completion has taken place and that the next call they should expect will be from the estate agent telling them what time they can collect the keys
4. The phone call from the client to thank you for your help and to tell you that they have the keys and that they are so excited about their new home
5. When we look at the Memorandum of Sale, and the firm/ solicitor acting for the other party is someone we get on with and we know that the transaction will go as smoothly as the parties/legal documents will allow
6. When the contract documents arrive by email, and they are not in a secure room or a Data room where we have to  download thousands of pages only to find the three documents that we really need
7. When we look at the title, and there are no pages and pages of documents which may or may not contain restrictive covenants which may or may not be relevant to the property  being sold
8. When we lodge a Land Registry application and the Registry do not find a reason to raise a requisition
9. When we manage to update the LMS or other portals before they have to email us to remind us to do so
10. When we know that we can just pick up the phone and have a conversation with the other conveyancing solicitor and resolve any issues that there may be

And finally  – number 11  – when we switch off the computer and phone and congratulate ourselves on a good day’s work and a job well done!

This is written by a real high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous. Read more in Today’s Conveyancer every week.