Reality used to be a friend of mine

There is currently a lot of noise at the moment – with very good reason – about the growing length of time it is taking to complete both purchase and remortgage business.

As a distributor, working in the middle between advisers/agents, their clients, and conveyancers, we see the frustration and stress this is causing. No-one wants to be informing their client constantly that “it’s going to take longer than we anticipated” especially when it’s not something they have any control over.

The reasons for these ongoing delays are many. Conveyancing firms are genuinely still working to deal and recover from last year’s situation, when a combination of pandemic, home working, stamp duty holidays, etc, meant they were constantly rejigging their businesses and resources to try and cope with the influx of business.

There’s a very good reason why the number of conveyancing/solicitor firms active in the conveyancing market last year rose for the first time in a long time, and it was all to do with the level of work that needed completed.

The market has come off those heady peaks of business, but not by much. The market is still very busy, and those resource issues still remain. I’m not aware of how many job vacancies currently exist within the conveyancing market, but I know full well that firms are constantly seeking to recruit, at a time when they are competing with many other businesses for staff. Again, there is a very good reason why we have one million jobs available in the UK at present.

We also have to recognise that conveyancing can be a stressful environment and sometimes it can feel like a battle in terms of getting cases over the line, especially when you have a process which is, I’m afraid, not fit for purpose, and often seems to ‘incite’ delay, rather than temper it.

In that sense, we really have to try and help ourselves as much as possible, which I readily admit is not easy particularly when it is a fluctuating system with built-in issues which result in far too may cases falling through.

For example, is it therefore surprising then that, in a recent survey of 1,000 homebuyers by HBB Solutions, 85% said they wanted gazumping to be made illegal. Indeed, in the market conditions we currently have – strong demand, low supply – we have a ‘perfect storm’ environment for gazumping to take place.

The market has been talking about legally binding offers for a long time, with financial penalties for those who break them, and I think in order to deliver greater certainty into the process, this is something that should be considered.

However, part of me wonders whether gazumping thrives in a lengthy process; after all, look at new-build sales, which are generally required to get to exchange within 28 days. If we had a similar situation across the wider property market, then the time period within which gazumping could take place in, would be severely curtailed. Add in a binding offer and I would imagine we would pretty much rid the market of this practice.

In many ways, we have to marry about client action and expectation, with the vagaries of our system. For example, poor upfront information on properties should not be a feature – consumers should know exactly what they are putting an offer on there and then, not finding out the true nature of the property weeks/months later. Conveyancers could be instructed at the point of marketing to be able to get on with their work as early as possible. Purchasers should not be putting offers in, and having them accepted, before they even know if they’ll get the finance to complete. Agents should be qualifying consumers’ finances and situation before they even put an offer to the vendor. I could go on.

What we need to try to do is bake in as much certainty into the system as possible, and at the same time, continually push for improvements to the process to ensure (amongst others) that a) conveyancing work starts immediately, b) we end duplication of tasks, c) the ability to pull out is effectively taken away for the majority of cases, and d) the client is made aware of just how long the process could take, especially if they are not providing the information required in a timely manner.

This is, I’m afraid, our reality at present and we have to do everything we can to help those firms who remain under severe resource strain, and who are dealing with organisations in a similar situation, to move as effectively through the process as they possibly can. It is not going to change overnight, but there is an opportunity to help moves thing along – we should all take it.