Again, I have been spoilt for choice as to what to write about this week, but I would like you all to indulge in my chosen topic for this week’s diary.
I started my Articles on the 1st September 1988 and it is always a time of reflection for me at this time of year. Children go back to school, the long summer holidays are over, and I think about what I did 34 (!!!) years ago.
I was fresh out of College of Law, nervous to be embarking on a career I had aspired to since I was 14. There are two overriding memories I have of my first day – my training principal, 10 years my senior and I was in awe of him. He drove a flash car and wore expensive suits.
I knew that if I worked hard, those rewards would come to me. But on my first day, he brought me crashing down to earth with the words: “starting salary of £8,500 and you won’t be covering your own salary for some time”. I learnt over the next two years that he was not the nicest chap to work for, but there were a lot of business lessons in that sentence.
The MIRAS double tax relief scheme had ended the day before, so there were a lot of tax returns I needed to fill in. Thinking back, you see that a lot of what you do in the first days of Articles was quite alien, no matter what you had been taught at university and Law College.
Filling in a MIRAS form was one of those things, but what struck me the most was the volume of telephone calls between 1pm and 2pm. Lunch hour – many clients would go out to the nearest phone box to call for an update on their matter and you would have to tell them the update quickly before the pips went.
There was one computer. Only one secretary was allowed to use it, and it was mainly used for typing leases. It was in a small cupboard-sized room and other staff had to ask permission to go in there as heaven forbid you pressed the wrong key and the hours of typing were lost.
I had never seen a fax machine before and marvelled at how documents could be sent to other parts of the country, and that we did not need to rely on the postal service. At 3.30pm every afternoon, the secretaries would come in with the post to be signed and sent out that afternoon.
And one thing I will never ever forget – it was common to have 28 days between exchange and completion… how lovely would that be now? Clients respected us, there were no chasing calls from estate agents (that started later when the corporates started to buy up the local estate agencies), and we were a profession to be admired and respected.
Where has that time gone?
This is written by a real high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous. Read more in Today’s Conveyancer every week.
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One Response
28 days between exchange and completion. How wonderful would that be?! Give the clients the opportunity to make arrangements in a calm manner. Give the clients the opportunity to clean the properties. Give the Conveyancers the time to set matters up properly and correctly. Unfortunately, due to the horrendous delays experienced at the moment, when you get to exchange and completion, our client’s patience has already run out and they will accept whatever is put forward. Things need to change.