There are so many things that us conveyancing solicitors have to deal with.
I often find myself writing about the same things, week in, week out – costs, enquiries, being kind to other solicitors – but I know that I am not alone in my musings. And then this week, I was greeted with a heading which stated – conveyancing rant alert.
Now, I knew it was not something I had written, but I did feel better to know that I was not alone in my thoughts. And the article was about checking source of funds early in the transaction so not even anything I have ever written about.
But it is a frustration, and there are many frustrations in conveyancing that we deal with on a daily basis. And we just get used to it.
I have mentioned before about the cash buyer with a mortgage. We have to make so many checks on not only the identity of our clients but also where the funds are coming from, and although it may look quicker to have a cash buyer, I believe that not only are we, the solicitors, obliged to carry out checks on funding but so are the agents.
And, again, as I have mentioned before, clients do not necessarily want to give us all of the information about the funding and may not mention that the funds are coming from a remortgage where another firm is acting because the clients genuinely do not think that they need to tell us.
But the one thing that really struck a chord with me was a comment in the comments section after the article, where the commentator compared conveyancing to heart surgery. The moral was do not dabble in conveyancing just because you studied it many years ago and it looks fun.
An orthopaedic surgeon would not carry out heart surgery just because he had read about it when studying. We are professionals and we do not save lives in the same way as surgeons but we are one of the established professions and we do need to remain professional at all times, even when we are upset about how we are treated.
So let’s talk to each other. Let’s get to know the solicitor on the other side of the transaction so that our clients do not think that we are battling each other all the time. We are not taught how to deal with people, but neither are surgeons, but a good bed side manner is crucial in both professions.
