House purchase timescale - is conveyancing to blame?

"My own opinion on this partly lays the blame – if there is any – on the expectations that many professionals in the chain present to their clients."

We all know they number many thousands, and while some have tried to place the blame for this at the doorstep of conveyancers, I think this is incredibly harsh, especially when many transactions are cut short for reasons entirely beyond their control. That said, conveyancers are always likely to be in the firing line because it’s part of the deal that is most unfamiliar to other practitioners, namely agents, brokers and other stakeholders.

Timescales, as we know, are everything in this part of the market and you only need to go on Twitter and read some of the tweets about the length of the process, to see what Joe Public thinks about. Indeed, even ‘celebrities’ such as Kirsty Allsopp have been on the social media site recently pontificating about the average length of time conveyancing now takes and how ‘outrageous’ this is, and conveyancers are clearly to blame for everything.

My own opinion on this partly lays the blame – if there is any – on the expectations that many professionals in the chain present to their clients. For example, if your client has seen their estate agent who tells them from the outset that the whole process should be completed within four-six weeks regardless, then obviously they are going to firstly have this figure in mind, and when it is passed they are going to start getting frustrated, agitated and irate about when completion might be achievable.

There is no ‘industry standard’ when it comes to conveyancing timescales, and the reason for this is that every case is different and there can be any number of disruptions to the smoothness of passage. That said, if we were in a position to supply clients with some standard timelines, albeit with the necessary caveats, then I think we would be doing both them and ourselves a favour.

For instance, talk of four to six weeks has to be jettisoned immediately. Anecdotally, and looking at our cases, it tends to be more like 10-12 weeks-plus, and that’s with a relatively smooth chain, the case being freehold, committed parties on both sides, the list goes on. Add in complexity such as if the case is leasehold – often a considerable bug bear for conveyancers – and lengthy chains, plus an inability to send the right information, first time, and you have to think about pushing those suggested timescales further out.

Having all practitioners singing from the same hymn sheet will do much to make sure that client expectations are not immediately out of hand from the get-go. Of course, everyone involved should want to get to the point of exchange as quickly as possible, but that doesn’t mean it can be delivered in record time, every time. The pre-Stamp Duty deadline situation did show how quickly transactions can be completed but in many cases these were ultra- committed purchasers and vendors, and the length of the chains were relatively short. While a real positive to have carried out this work in such limited timescales I’m not sure we can expect this to be the industry standard.

Instead, it would be helpful if the necessary conveyancing bodies and associations were to be able to provide some guidance and perhaps create a more relevant timescale that we can offer up to clients. It’s never going to be deadly-accurate but it could perhaps deliver some realism into the process and perhaps provide a smoother ride and less panic and frustration for all concerned.