The Partnership Newsletter - July 2011

“Please can we book the pitch next to the Gloucester Old Spot sausage seller?”

We don’t want to pour cold water on the democratisation of the provision of legal services, but we think Quality Solicitor’s idea of having a promotional stand in WH Smiths for discussing legal matters and booking appointments with a lawyer, is intriguing. We agree you don’t need to visit your family solicitor to receive advice on matters such as conveyancing and wills, but the idea of going into a high street shop and discussing your personal matters does raise questions of confidentiality and credibility. We await with interest to see how their launch in London goes tomorrow and how the public respond to discussing their private affairs in public. If it is positive, then obviously we’ll be straight on the telephone to book our place at the next farmer’s market - we assume the best location will be between the Gloucester Old Spot sausages and the Big Pie Company– our A-boards will say something like, “Specially Local Conveyancing For Specially Local People”. It could work …

Delays to implementation of lawyer ownership change?
Most agents we speak to are not aware of the impact of the changes that were planned to affect the provision of legal services this October. These changes will allow any company to offer legal advice, so naturally, clients will be encouraged to shop around for the cheapest price. For the housing market, this obviously raises the spectre of potentially lower service levels and consequently further delays in the buying and selling process. However, we have learned today that due to legislative reasons, it is likely that this change will be delayed for several months. but are assured that it will be before Christmas.

Even more delays ... this time to EPCs
The government is learning that it’s easier to suspend housing legislation than introduce it. In recent months there has been talk of changes to the commissioning and use of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) that would have reintroduced the same delays that so dogged the implementation of Home Information Packs. It was planned that the responsibility for providing an EPC would fall to the agent rather than the individual and that the entire report would to be included with property particulars and had to be available before marketing. However, this change has been delayed until October and will be watered down so that only a single page of the report is required but this will need to be supplied within 7 days of commissioning. We await the next change ...

Social Networking in business?
Like many people we speak to, we have been sceptical about the value of social networking when it comes to promoting professional services. However, despite this, we have been quietly promoting our Twitter feed and LinkedIn pages in conjunction with our blog. Obviously we’ve been proved wrong as we’ve seen a significant interest from agents in our services and so we will be extending our coverage and are now redesigning our website for a September launch to reflect the change in marketing. We are monitoring this closely and are interested in feedback from our subscribers and how we can improve the information that we provide.

Great client stories - Part 1

Not that we're implying that this is going to be a regular piece on amusing anecdotes about agent's experiences with clients but we did hear one the other day that demonstrates how little people know about the conveyancing process, and why maybe cheap isn't always best.

As per the usual instruction process, one of our agents asked their prospective seller whether they had a date in mind that they should aim to move by. Naturally, client pulled a date out of the air, and thought that it would be convenient to move on that date (approximately 6 weeks time).

Instruction started and was going through the usual process - hadn't got to exchange or anywhere close, but our agent received a call from the client the day before that aformenationed date, explaining that she had booked the removal firm, was all ready to go and could she come into the agent's office to sign the paperwork.

Suffice to say. our agent had to put her straight and told her to cancel the removal firm.

The client had been using a large conveyancing firm who obviously hadn't explained that the process involved a little more than just wishful thinking on her part!

Santander - a breath of fresh air!

Really pleased to see that given all the anecdotal doom and gloom about lenders withdrawing panel status and changing criteria to make life more difficult for solicitors, we see that Santander (one of our favourite lenders) are implementing a new panel management scheme and extending this to new firms.

Obviously there are major challenges for some legal firms but if large lenders such as Santander are accepting panel applications then this gives us great encouragement.

Interesting development from a lender

We have just been informed by one of the main high street lenders that in future, we're going to have to pay to remain a member of their panel. This is due to the overheads involved in their managing our panel membership.

We expect that they won't be the last to implement such a scheme, and we are watching carefully to see what approaches other lenders will take when it comes to working with solicitors.