Conveyancing Month!

 

 

 The UK’s first monthly on-line journal dedicated to conveyancers!

 

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  CONTENTS

Leadership and the

Conveyancing Industry

 

The “Conveyancing Industry”, as such, does not yet exist. Instead, there exists in it’s place, a section of the legal profession, overwhelmingly made up of small firms of solicitors, who, against a background of constant and unremitting change, struggle to meet the public’s aspirations on the one hand, and make a fair living out of it on the other. In recent times, they appear - quite unfairly - to be failing on both counts.

 

The problem of course, is that from the clients’ point of view, standards of service delivery cannot be too high; conversely, the price they are prepared to pay for the service cannot be too low, and so closing the aspiration/price gap has been a constant challenge for conveyancing solicitors.

By any rational analysis, however, it is clear that conveyancers have risen to that challenge, and quite magnificently. As Fiona Gregory makes clear in her article “The HIPs and e-conveyancing War” (see post)  in 1982, a three bedroom detached house would have cost around £30,000 and solicitors’ fees would have been around £300. That house today is worth £300,000, but solicitors’ fees are around £400. As to the other side of the equation - quality of service - we only have to look at the buoyancy and success of the UK property market to know that we have delivered. The property market is a key driver of the UK economy, and the quality of the services provided by conveyancers are a key factor in the wealth and prosperity that the market generates.

 

Not, of course, that you would know any of this from the howls of rage that continue to emanate from the consumer protection lobby and various sections of the media. That they should give themselves over to such strictures is entirely understandable - after all, it’s their job! - but that they should be given so much credence is a good deal more questionable, and depressing. Here, the blame must be laid fairly and squarely at the feet of the Law Society. Seemingly unable to mount and sustain a robust defence of the profession in general, and conveyancers in particular, they have completely failed (in stark contrast with the medical profession, for instance) to educate and lead public opinion. At every turn, they appear to have given way, and either expressly or implicitly accepted every criticism levelled against the profession, no matter how misconceived, unfair, or downright fatuous. Given that conveyancers are entering a period of unprecedented change and challenge, and the need for strong and inspired leadership has never been greater, the Law Society’s past performance is less than encouraging.

 

The coming into existence of a strong and vibrant conveyancing industry will, hopefully, change all that. For the first time ever, conveyancing services, and the individual elements that together comprise a conveyancing transaction, will be delivered not only by solicitors, but by a whole raft of companies and organisations, many of whom will enjoy both national and global reach. This new grouping, consisting not only of solicitors, but names such as TM, Land Registry, RightMove, MDA and Tesco, is rapidly coalescing into a coherent industry, and ultimately, it is certain that these new players will not accept leadership from anyone but themselves.

 

Why should conveyancing solicitors be any different? Whilst the reforms contained in the draft Legal Services Bill will ensure, for the time being at least, that the Law Society will continue to regulate the profession, it is by no means clear that they will - or should - continue to represent it. Judged on past performance, the role of representing conveyancers’ interests within the new commercial environment is one which the Law Society simply doesn’t deserve, or even - so far as we can tell - genuinely want.

 

It is time, past time in fact, for practitioners to identify, or even create, those organisations that have the desire and vision to help them achieve the respect, and the rewards, to which they are entitled.