Tackling the crisis in conveyancing

There is little about the financial services world that John Ahmed (pictured) is not conversant with.

Before he became the director of conveyancing law firm Movin’ Legal in 2017, Ahmed led several firms in the financial sector from the early ‘90s onwards, each dedicated to a specific field.

From selling investments and pensions to taking advisory roles and running a mortgage brokerage, he did it all, providing him with the experience he believes gave him an all-round better understanding of the needs of homebuyers and intermediaries. 

“My passion lies with the mortgage intermediaries,” he said. “They are the people that go out and prospect and get the business, whether that ends up with a lender, with a conveyancer, or with an insurance company.”

But while conveyancers are also an essential part in the house buying process, paradoxically, conveyancing times have increased over the years, this despite the advances in automation that have transformed many aspects of the mortgage industry.

Read more: How do you speed up conveyancing times?

Although it normally takes between eight and 12 weeks to carry out a conveyancing transaction, due to increased regulation, which may include environment and local authority searches involving a host of other players, the process can take almost twice as long.

Ahmed agreed but indicated that COVID had worsened an already difficult situation.

“The time to completions has increased, but it’s more to do with time constraints caused by the pandemic and the after-effects of that shutdown than by a lack of technology,” he said. “Civil servants, public offices and councils are partly working from home and some of them won’t return to work, so that adds extra pressure on the bandwidth of conveyancers - and that started with the crash in 2008.”

Although the market has recovered since then, the conveyancing sector has not, he added.

The fact is the profession has been in crisis since 2011, with more than 1,000 active conveyancing firms in England and Wales disappearing in the last decade or so, according to figures from legal property data and technology provider, Search Acumen.

And with lengthier transactions and fewer conveyancers, it’s inevitable that the relationship between conveyancers and intermediaries is often strained, particularly when hundreds of thousands of pounds are involved in property transactions.

“Conveyancers are not always the best at communication,” Ahmed recognised. “But it’s not all their fault. Time has dragged for them the same as for mortgage brokers. They can be waiting for deeds or information from that lender for quite some time, so that delays searches - and councils can drag their heels on searches,” he added, citing one council that took 60 days to come back with a response.

But if a broker becomes increasingly exasperated by delays, this in turn can cause animosity between conveyancers and intermediaries, he pointed out.

But there are solutions. Ahmed suggested enrolling in one of the CPD (continual professional development) courses for intermediaries the company runs.

“It’s to try to educate intermediaries a little bit more on the log jams in the process and how to overcome them,” he said.

Read more: A revolution in conveyancing?

Asked how Movin’ Legal tackled those niggling delay issues, he said his team chased “everything straightaway” and acted like an extension of the mortgage intermediary’s business.

“Our process is probably more streamlined than a lot of firms. Our legal firms on the panel are all intermediary friendly, so they are used to dealing with them,” he said.

“The team chases everything all the way through until that client is completed and they’ve got the keys to the house. We also understand the process from a financial services point of view because 60% of this company is made up of mortgage brokers and 40% is made up of services’ guys – and that’s a great mix to have.”