I am acting for a lovely young couple in the sale of a leasehold flat, a converted Victorian house in a street in south west London. Two weeks ago the estate agents told my clients and I the buyer had transferred her deposit and there were two small points her conveyancer needed to check with me but we were then ready to exchange contracts.
Everyone was very excited and I was waiting to see what those enquiries could be. An email from the buyer’s conveyancer pinged into my mail box… with 24 enquiries. I was somewhat incredulous and as I read through them, I began to doubt the enquiries had been written by a human.
The lease for the flat my clients were selling had zero ground rent and 115 years left on the lease. The questions asked included ‘Please ask the sellers to arrange for the lease to be extended as there are not sufficient years left for the purposes of mortgage lending’ and ‘there is no reference in the lease to a rent review provision, please provide a Deed of Variation.’
I stared at the computer screen knowing I could not reply straightaway.
An email pinged in from my clients: “the estate agents have told us that you have received the enquiries from the buyer’s solicitor – can you answer them as quickly as you can?”
An email pinged in from the estate agents: “the buyer’s solicitor has told me he has sent you the final enquiries – please answer them as soon as you can as the chain is desperate to exchange contracts.”
You will all know how I felt. I felt not just the pressure to exchange contracts, but also to manage expectations which were now very high through no fault of mine.
I called my clients and explained the position and whilst speaking with them, I sent them a copy of the email from the buyer’s conveyancer. They were very angry but said we needed to exchange contracts and could I just answer them as quickly as I could. I went through the list and answered them but as I read them in detail, it became apparent that the questions asked had clearly not been drafted by a human. I pointed this out at the start of my reply email in as polite a way as I could. I sent the answers, copying in the estate agents .
No reply…
No reply for two days despite everyone chasing me to find out what was happening… and then an email from the other side asking me to approve the Deed of Covenant.
In as polite a way as possible, I pointed out in my 40 years of experience, I had not seen a Deed of Covenant drafted in the way that this Deed was drafted. I had never been asked to get the seller to sign one and that it was not usual for such a deed to be made between a buyer and seller. I also politely suggested there was a precedent of the Deed in the Lease and perhaps that could be used?
I am still waiting to hear back.
This is one of the things that is wrong with the current system in my view. Unqualified conveyancers using AI to ask questions. But it is the experienced conveyancers who are having to deal with these questions while trying to explain to clients that such questions may not be strictly necessary; only to find ourselves told we’re holding up transactions! What is the answer?
This column is written by a real high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous. The views expressed are those of the author and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
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