I feel for clients moving house; they hand over their lives to us to help them move. They don’t really have any appreciation of what is going to happen, they don’t know the other parties in the chain. They only have a vague appreciation as to who does what.
A prime example of how movers can be subjected to the whims of others happened to the client of a colleague this week. All parties were ready to complete on Friday. My colleague’s client had paid for removals and was all boxed up and ready to go. The first time buyer’s solicitor was very reassuring, and the chain was told that they were just waiting for the return of the signed documents.
All sounded clear and nothing unusual – we’re used to these scenarios. But then…
On Thursday morning, an email was sent declaring that the first time buyer had decided not to proceed. After a frantic call to the buyer’s solicitor, it was established that the documents had been sent to the first time buyer for signing – but together with the report on the contract and supporting documents.
It was a leasehold property and there were issues with the service charge: the first time buyer was risk averse and did not want to pay the charge that had been noted in the Leasehold Information Pack, which had been sent in August. That’s right – in August.
The first time buyer’s solicitor received the Leasehold Information Pack but had not done their report for the buyer until they were happy with everything and ready for the buyer to sign.
I never understand why a report on the title is not sent to a buyer earlier on. There are so many matters which affect the buyer’s decision to proceed that we may not know about: a service charge budget set to increase over the next few years is a perfect example.
It would also apply if the buyer drove a van but there was a restrictive covenant to say that you could not park a commercial vehicle or van on the front drive. There may be myriad matters and scenarios the solicitor is unaware of, making it crucial to send the report as soon as possible to identify any issues early on, rather than waiting until everyone in the chain is sitting there with their bags and boxes packed and nowhere to go.
Am I wrong?
This column is written by a real high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous. Read more in Today’s Conveyancer every week.
7 responses
And again,
The utter stupidity of allowing clients to prepare their entire life around a date they cannot trust.
1) A simple, mandated gap between exchange and completion solves this.
2) Adding in a requirement for all Conveyancers to confirm ‘exchange authorised’ before setting a date.
If you know the mandated gap…. Then you already have a clear idea of the completion date. Only you dispense with the potential emotional destruction and financial losses for the client.
How, broadly, conveyancing cannot see that it’s own habits, practices and (lack of proper) method is borderline psychotic. It’s beyond me.
For all the words here that sound empathetic. And for all the posts on LinkedIn by Conveyancers wanting to sound like they have clients interests at heart.
You don’t. You don’t truly understand moving. You don’t understand the angst, stress, and trauma events like this cause.
If you did.
You’d change it.
spoken like an estate agent
You cannot tarnish all conveyancers with the same brush. Estate agents have themselves to blame by pushing people towards their ‘recommended’ who do sometimes end up being these factory outfits. My clients get a lecture about leasehold BEFORE even getting a quote + free information with their quotes before signing up to leasehold/being a blank cheque book for the Landlord and/or Management Company. It’s not our fault people don’t read anything these days.
Estate agents need to be more savvy too and ask the right questions – many are unable to ellicit from their sellers what the service charge is and display this on portal listings. Many sellers will not reveal they are in receipt of a s.20 notice until it comes out of the LPE1 pack. People will be people.
Anonymous, Matt is not an estate agent.
Matt we have been here before, but conveyancers dont “allow” clients, clients often ignore our advice.
The advice needs to improve
Last time I checked. The protocols from LS don’t mention setting dates until the point where exchange is imminent.
And yet…
The advice Rob needs to be in the best interests of the client. Clearly this simply isn’t the case up and down the country.
It needs to change.
Here you go Rob. Typing this at 7:55 at work. About 1 hour after replying to you.
We have an email here (just one example of many everyday).
Customer asking ‘How does the 16th/17th December look? Can we make a booking?’
Then the email goes on to say that EA thinks it’s sensible as does her Solicitor.
Then goes on to say there are multiple enquiries outstanding. Both with her buyer, and their buyers buyer.
We are about to re-educate the lady. Advise her that the agents are playing speculative nonsense. Moreover that her solicitor should be more sensible. Instead saying ‘let us focus on getting to the point of exchange’.
The moving company should not be the ones offering sensible advice. Yet we do. Because it’s us that suffers the emotional fall-out and the client stress. As they’ve focussed, planned and prepared to move….only now it’s the 12th of Dec and they can’t have a moving booking….haven’t exchanged….with everybody screaming because ‘it was supposed to be 17th for completion ‘.
All because sensible procedure, habit and logic didn’t prevail early enough.
We deal with this every single day of the week. Year in, year out.
Leaving dates aside no-one has a survey carried out which they don’t read until they are asked to sign as a survey can lead to a renegotiation of the price. The same applies to the conveyancing process and in my view good practice is to provide the client with details of all covenants, restrictions and any financial implications whether leasehold or freehold as soon as the conveyancer receives them so that the client can decide if they are happy to proceed. Delaying this information until reporting to the client can jeopordise a related sale and any chain.