At the start of any year, it’s positive to have a series of goals that you’d like to see resolutions for. Especially when you have been working on these for a long time and you get closer to securing the result you want to see.
I certainly feel like that across a number of the many CA workstreams we are focused on, however perhaps one of the major ones for conveyancing firms this year is to help move their staff into a better place in terms of their own working environment and their mental well-being.
Now I’m being somewhat generalist here, but the latest “state of the nation” survey from tmgroup paints a less than healthy picture when it comes to a range of issues, notably pay, working conditions, and the work/life balance people feel they do (or rather don’t) have, but also the conveyancing process itself.
There’s no doubting this has been a tricky ask for many firms, particularly given the tumultuous nature of the property market since the first lockdown and given the range of issues we are all facing, but particularly resource issues, the cost of living increases, working from home, working back in the office, and the very job that conveyancers do, which can sometimes seem like it belongs in a bygone era.
We’ve certainly had these conversations at CA meetings and will continue to explore them at our Conferences and beyond, because while I’m not so sure it represents an existential crisis for our sector, I can certainly appreciate there are perhaps some significant changes needed, and the work/cost/resource required to get to a better place is likely to be high.
The Conveyancing Foundation’s first “Wellbeing at Work” survey is now open and seeks to understand how happy those involved in the home moving industry are and what factors could/would improve their working lives. The survey will run until 6th March and takes around 10 minutes to complete – you can complete the survey here.
One of the key issues with our work is that we are so interconnected with other professions in terms of trying to get these cases completed.
Interestingly, one of the key points to be raised by conveyancers from the tmgroup research was the need for greater respect between the professions involved in the property market, and perhaps this was why – when we recently asked our members what our priorities should be for 2023 – many were keen for us to focus on greater lender engagement.
It’s certainly been clear – particularly at very busy times for the market over the last few years – that respect can sometimes be the first casualty of interactions. Whether that is between advisers and conveyancers or lenders, or indeed between the client and the conveyancer, the former who tend to get even more frustrated and stressed due to not understanding the process or worrying that nothing is getting done for long periods of time.
Unfortunately, given that it is conveyancers at the coal face, it does tend to be individuals working in our industry who “get it in the neck” the most, for issues and problems often beyond their own control.
And if you are attempting to manage increased workloads with less resource, then there are going to be more pinch points and, as we have seen, slowly but surely, the ability to complete a property transaction seems to be taking longer and longer.
It was notable that when we asked members what was material to the average consumer’s transactional decision, they were hard pressed to come up with anything. When asked why, the answer was that if there is an issue which would impact the property then the conveyancer will find a way to fix it.
While this is undoubtably the skillset conveyancers have in abundance, the impact of dealing with these issues is profound, not just upon the consumer, but upon the conveyancing staff having to manage their client and estate agent expectations while the issue is fixed.
Without doubt a conveyancer’s world will be a happier place if issues are fixed before a buyer is found, so that they have the satisfaction of doing the role they trained for, but without it negatively impacting their client and, by extension, their own mental health.
For all the “improving process” issues that we have worked on for many years, and the fight we have undertaken in areas such as leasehold reform and the like, it feels like one of the key areas we can work on is engagement with other stakeholders. After all, we all rely on each other in a very true sense, and if one part of that “chain” is struggling, then everyone is going to feel the impact.
So, yes – I do understand why our member firms want us to work more closely with lenders, but also other firms involved in the process such as agents and advisers, in order to not just grow understanding of where we currently are as a profession, what we can do better, and where there is cause for concern, but to also continue to open these channels in order to gain insight and, dare I say it, empathy, for those who are at the sharp end.
We can work out ways to stop having to constantly contact each other certainly, but we can also ensure that when we do communicate it is absolutely necessary and it is going to help deliver a positive outcome, rather than simply providing an opportunity to vent because of an issue delaying the transaction.
Beth Rudolf is Director of Delivery at the Conveyancing Association (CA)
