The lead up to the last night’s big announcement by the Prime Minister was eagerly anticipated.
The televised address to the nation by Boris about the next stage of our fight against the virus was watched by millions. Many conveyancers hope that chains would be unblocked and all parts of the property sector could fully get back to work. Others were in fear of any relax in the rules could cause chaos and spread the virus more.
In reality no one seems to have gained much from Boris’s words. We know we are moving from “Stay at Home” to “Stay Alert” and if you can’t work from home you should go back to work if its safe whilst avoiding public transport but what does this mean for removal companies in peoples’ homes, agents doing viewing and lender mortgage processing centres? Who knows ? We all anticipate the detail when it is laid before Parliament. Some of which may hopefully become clear after 2pm today.
Twitter is full of conveyancers claiming we can all work and complete whilst others are strongly of the opposite view.
Whilst for some conveyancers their present service is a voice mail that says they are not progressing anything in lock down and its incredibly hard to get anything out of them about any file active or otherwise, chains will be interrupted and delayed.
Our dependency not just on other conveyancers offering some type of service is high but so too is that of other professionals. Right now would you want to be in the removal industry?
Perhaps the words may encourage a few more people and professionals to move but it feels like it is grasping at straws and may only have an incremental difference on the present volumes.
Our figures at Lawyer Checker suggest people are still completing between 40-45% of what they were doing last year but we can see from within our figures that some firms are hit a lot worse.
Lets see what the details show today.
Will you change your policies towards progressing your files on this basis ?
2 responses
Nice article. Thank You for considering movers.
Movers are likely to be planning a return.
The guidance issued while a little simple in its message is actually fairly clear.
‘Go back to work. This may mean continuing to work as you are from home. However, if you need to/have to work from elsewhere then take all sensible precautionary measures to do so.’
That is a green light for the housing market.
Home moves cannot be performed while maintaining social distancing. That is a fact. However, firms are managing utilising masks, safety glasses and gloves. Many movers operate very professional operative staff who understand the risks.
It is very evident that EA’s are keen to resume, movers even more so.
We have all been told, ‘go back to work’.
Lets not make it more complicated than it needs to be. We need not be careless, we can all be careful. We can employ common sense.
About time the professions an alternative to the chain.