Many years ago, I acted for a friend of mine whose family were moving to a larger house. On the day of completion, I decided that, as I was passing their house, I would pop in to see how they were getting on.
It was chaos – there were people and boxes everywhere. I learnt that popping in to see how someone is getting on whilst moving is not the best way to maintain a friendship unless you offer to do some hoovering.
However, I was glad I did see them. It reminded me that whereas we sit behind our desks, moving money around and dating documents (and yes, I know it is more than that really!), it is the client who has the busiest day and they are just hoping that we achieve completion for them in a time scale which means that they can be in their new home by the time they have to pick up the children from school, or before it goes dark!
We do this every day and we know what to expect – we even know how to deal with things when the move goes wrong. In the same way that I rely on the mechanic to fix my car so I don’t crash as I leave the garage forecourt, the clients expect us just to get them moved – as if by magic!
I was reminded of this on Friday when I called a lovely client to tell her that the monies were in on her sale and I was arranging to transfer the purchase monies in relation to the house she was buying.
This couple had a difficult transaction with a call centre firm acting for the sellers… I was pleased they were moving as they had been so understanding throughout.
I have to say that it was the funniest conversation I had on Friday when Mrs A told me that they were doing well, she was going to start hoovering but could not believe how much dust there was behind the sofa and that there was a half-eaten sausage. This led to a discussion regarding the sausage scenario, and she told me that she knew which one of her children was responsible and we concluded it must have been a recent sausage as it had not yet started to go mouldy. I could not believe that on what was a stressful day, we were discussing sausages.
But isn’t that the fun of our job? We must remember that clients want to enjoy moving, but by the time they get to moving day, they are worn out by the procedure and what they see as the constant battling between and delays caused by conveyancers. We did laugh about the half-eaten sausage – and when they come back to me in the future and move again, I will remember them by this story! Now where is that tin of beans I was talking about last week?
This is written by a real high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous. Read more in Today’s Conveyancer every week.
