Industry must prioritise wellbeing - or abuse from clients will have lasting impact

It has been an intense period of activity for all housing market stakeholders during that time but, if you listen carefully, you can probably hear a collective sigh of relief from all conveyancing solicitors, especially those large-scale operators who have been seeking to complete on the larger numbers of purchase transactions.

Of course, we all absolutely want the market to be running at its capacity all the time, however deadlines mean significant numbers of cases are crammed into a shorter period, plus of course all housing market stakeholders have had to deal with the pandemic and lockdown essentially changing the normal rules of how we work.

To say it has been challenging would be an understatement, and this has been ramped up considerably when the clients are seeking to (often) save thousands of pounds in tax that they would ordinarily have to find.

However, and this is where our industry perhaps needs to take a tougher line, even with all this at stake, no employee of any firm should have to take the kind of abuse that I have heard (and read about) recently.

Whether it has been abusive clients threatening conveyancing staff, or (perhaps even more appallingly) other property industry ‘professionals’ doing likewise, we need to draw a line in the sand that this is simply unacceptable and appropriate action needs to take place.

In this day and age – thank goodness – we are much more in tune with the mental health needs of people, and I would like to think as employers we are also much more aware of what our employees may be going through, especially at times of great activity and, therefore, great stress.

However, there is a clear dividing line between requests for information and ongoing communication about how a case is proceeding, and abuse and threats being meted out to staff who (lest we forget) have been doing a difficult job in difficult circumstances and are human beings trying to do the best they can.

Of course, there are always frustrations and obstacles within the conveyancing process. Our system, unfortunately, can be a bureaucratic and administrative nightmare for certain cases, with chains all reliant on each, different firms working at different speeds, a reliance on quick client responses, and everything else that goes into completing the conveyancing of a purchase.

But, and this is in no way an excuse for clients overstepping the mark, they may be completely in the dark about what is going to happen, when it should happen and what their responsibilities are. Can the same be said of other property professionals? To hear that conveyancing staff have been put under severe pressure from others within their own industry at such a time is I’m afraid unconscionable. It cannot be allowed to go on unchecked.

Which is why we need to consider how we approach this aspect of the job going forward. Look, we fully understand that turning down, turning away or simply stopping working on a case, can be difficult to do – we are all professional firms who rely on the business, the introductions, the completion of work, etc.

But, if we are not prioritising the working environment that we place our staff in, if we are not prioritising their rights not to be subject to abuse, if we are not prioritising their mental health, then there are significant questions to be asked.

To that end, I think there has to be a zero tolerance approach from all concerned. In a recent survey it was suggested that 49% of respondents were aware of people who had left the conveyancing industry because of mental health challenges over the last 12 months. Again, we recognise these have been unprecedented times but in an industry which tends to need more staff, not less, this should be a concern for all practitioners and stakeholders.

We need to send out the message that we won’t tolerate abusive behaviour or language to our staff from anyone – regardless of whether they are clients or other so-called professionals. Make it known that this cannot be allowed and that you will cease working with these people; effectively hit them where it hurts the hardest. Don’t prioritise those who would abuse your employees, otherwise, you’re likely to lose both respect and your staff.