Diary of a high street conveyancer: 30th October 2023

It is still the case that many prospective clients call the office to ask for a breakdown of costs. Invariably, he or she has already called other firms and may have spoken with another solicitor – or did they?

And with that question, I do not mean was it a “real” conversation . I am not sure that AI is so good that it can impersonate voices in a high street conveyancing practice yet, but I meant that did he or she speak with a solicitor? Or was it one of the many who do conveyancing who are not solicitors?

I am fascinated by the sign offs on emails. There are so many names for those providing conveyancing services, and as a client, I would not have a clue where to start in order to differentiate between them. Who is the most qualified? Who has the most experience? Who is best to look after my needs?

So here are just a selection of the sign offs to emails in the last week:

•  Solicitor
•  Conveyancing executive
•  Licensed conveyancer
• Property lawyer
• Conveyancing Paralegal
• Conveyancer
• Trainee conveyancing specialist

Looking at Gov.UK, it states Conveyancers are property lawyers who deal with the legal and financial sides of buying and selling property and land.

So in the same way, I think that clients are confused by fees and how much their charges will be, they must be confused by the status of the person representing them. And those two things are linked.

With experience comes an expectation of quality. With quality, then fees can be more. I am not saying that the trainee conveyancer will not be as good; that trainee will be supervised .

But if you know that you have experience and quality, charge for it.  And make sure that the client knows. It is not necessarily about what we call ourselves, but what we do and how we do it.