To think buying and selling homes could be made much much simpler..

[Hungrycaterpillarsmummy]

If there was a sort of "legal database" where only solicitors can access and it would show all previous documents relating to a property so there is no faff of going back and forth between solicitors.
I'm having to provide building warrants and applications, affadavits for road access etc which was obviously already done when we bought the property. Now we are going through it all again using a different solicitor for the sale.

Also the jargon ..surely the jargon could be modernised?! I just had an email saying "I see that you have emailed further requesting a mandate, I will get my colleague to prepare same and forward onto you."

Prepare the same! Honestly..

Maybe I am being unreasonable but it's such a fucking fafffffff.

Conveyancer here - I hope you will all bear with me and not judge! 95% of all conveyancers are completely overworked and overwhelmed and suffering from stress and anxiety in a very high pressure, high stress and, believe it or not, fast paced environment. We have 100’s of files each, not allowed to turn down work even though we don’t have capacity to deal with any more. We are all working weekends, nights etc to get people moved. We all agree that the system has to change. We have a huge amount of red-tape compliance to wade through, lender’s are increasingly strict about the requirements for lending and what we must obtain on their behalf, conveyancers are literally responsible for ensuring that the roof over your heads is a good buy and won’t come back and bite you in the arse. People are very quick to say ‘we dont care about that, we just want to move’ until something is actually wrong and then conveyancers are the first people you call to say we ballsed it up. I’ve been doing this job for 20 years and it just gets harder & harder each year. Most conveyancers really do understand how awful buying and selling is in this country, and we’re desperately trying to meet the expectations of our clients, the agents, the lender, the chain, and our personal targets. But I’m also a mum and a wife and I’m working so many hours I’m feeling guilty all the time because I’m struggling to keep up with my responsibilities at home and my responsibilities at work, and more often than not my family come second and my work comes first purely because I care about my clients. And I can tell you 100% that a lot of conveyancers are exactly the same. My anxiety and stress levels are through the roof because of my job and I will be leaving by the end of the year because I can’t sustain this level of working. And despite what you think we really don’t get paid as much as you’d imagine. Law firms are dreadful, we don’t get paid overtime so we’ll be paid to work 35 hours a week but most of us will 50-60 hours. It’s crazy, honestly. But having said that, the process is so stressful that I’ve sworn never to move myself! Ok - rant over!

I am a solicitor and I wouldn't touch conveyancing for twice or even three times my current salary. Between the huge risk of getting sued, and the attitude of most clients it's not worth it.

In this day and age it’s not like someone has to go down the land registry and search for documents unless it is a very old house! The drama some of my new build neighbours are having trying to sell their homes because the developer didn’t do such and such is ridiculous. The houses are 10 years old!

I've noticed a trend that lots of properties are coming on the market using the "modern method of auction" but maybe that's area dependent?

The English system is insane. What I don't understand is who benefits from it. The only profession that seems to benefit is the surveyors as a property may have more than 1 survey before it's sold due to sales falling through. I don't think anyone wants to open the can of worms and fix it. It makes me laugh when our consumer protection regulator messes about with the likes of mattress deals and Xbox subscriptions when our conveyancing system is so obviously unfair and leaves consumers exposed to so much unnecessary stress and cost. Whilst also not benefiting anyone. If we had been able to move last time, our conveyancers, estate agents, removal firm, the Government (in the form of stamp duty) and our bank would have all benefited from the sale.

Yep. I bought my first home in 1997 and latest home within the last year. Homes in between then too. Even with no chain it's taken 4-6 months each time.

In latter years, the only difference I've found is the addition of email and having to prove your identity and source of income/deposit seems to be more stringent. I don't remember so many checks and verifying everything the couple of first homes I bought.

Gov have said this is something they want to work on and believe it when I see it

It baffles me that in the US the most litigious country in the world that they can do escrow in 2 weeks! If they can surely we can.
But then we look to the land registry having a backlog here for 2 years and you get why it's grinding at a snails pace!
It's painful and rife for disruption!

I believe in the US it's common to use bridging finance, so you don't need to have huge chains of everyone selling one house and buying another on the same day. I can only assume this is deemed too risky by the banks here/not allowed under regulatory rules, as it would be in their interests for fewer chains to collapse (and of course there would presumably be some free money product fees in it for them in setting up the bridging loan as distinct from the mortgage).

Yep, I agree it should be quicker and the whole system needs an overhaul.

Closed on a house in the US in 18 days last year.

The Land Registry isn't usually the problem. Most LR things are online, it's the Lenders with their increasingly strict requirements.
Hearing from people in other jurisdictions it's clear that bridging finance is usually used, so the loan isn't secured on the property itself and chains aren't necessary.
That would be wonderful here, the problem is that the average mortgage needed in E&W is simply far too high for a bridging loan, and if it were possible the interest would be insane.

The really striking thing on the thread is that non lawyers genuinely don't seem to know how the process works, and think solicitors are delaying getting paid and making their work less lucrative out of malice 🤯

I do wonder whether bad regulation is jamming the cogs.

Compared to NZ there are just a lot more laws in the UK. I'm not saying regulation is bad: it's a Wild West without it, but there is a compliance cost. Is that what makes lenders so strict in the UK?

They're strict because property prices are so high, mortgage loans are so high, 2008 happened.
If you can't pay your mortgage the only recourse the Lender has is to repossess your house and sell it. If they can't get what they loaned you for it, because it's got various problems that should have been picked up at the purchase stage, they sue the conveyancer.
Conveyancing is one of the riskiest areas of work.

The conveyancer acts for the buyer and the Lender. The Lender has the much higher requirements.

I would add that the amount of property bought with dirty or sanctioned money in the UK suggests that regulation needs to be higher!
But no-one ever thinks rules should affect them, just the naughty people.

Trouble is the "naughty" people know how to circumvent the rules as they have "bent" solicitors/accountants, know how to get forged passports, etc. A lot of recent regulation has made life hard for honest people but the fraudsters/criminals sort out forged documents etc.

A bit like car number plates - you have to take ID and ownership proof if you want a new number plate from Halfords, but organised criminal gangs will have someone with the right piece of equipment to produce fake ones.

Just wanted to acknowledge this @Simplelife2021 as no one else has. Hope you’re ok, nothing is worth burn out.

Indeed. It sounds like a gruelling life. I liked @Simplelife2021 ’s post at the time, but it’s worth repeating.

My conveyancer is great. Drives things forward.

Fellow legal professional here and another poster has said this but I feel the same way - you couldn't pay me enough to do conveyancing work. Some of the comments you regularly see on threads like this from people assuming any delays etc must be the lawyers deliberately doing things to bump up their fees (how, when it's a fixed fee? ), comments about "lining their pockets" etc must be hurtful when you're a professional trying to give a good service to your clients, for a very average salary! The idea that not all lawyers earn Slaughter and May salaries (in fact, the vast majority don't!) doesn't occur to some people.

The released mortgage money stays in certain profession's accounts longer. Work it out.

Or you could read the comments on here from people who actually know what they are talking about?

There was a half hearted attempt to streamline the process via Home Information Packs, but apparently the EAs and surveyors made a massive political fuss and got it canned….

I do. There was a massive scandal about it years ago.

So some rogue firms "years ago" doing something in breach of regulatory rules. Doesn't make it right, but this is not the gotcha you think it is 🥱

I've hears some people do their own conveyancing, honestly because they constantly ask you for all the stuff anyway I don't know why it requires a solicitor, they're mainly a giant post box as far as I can tell

@Ireallywantadoughnut36
You haven't read any of the thread, have you?

You don't understand why people might want to use a solicitor when spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on something which may have liabilities attached to it?...

Some people do their own litigation too but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.