me first of all confess , even though I have worked at firms that have offered it, I don’t like ‘no sale no fee’ as sales tool . I think it cheapens conveyancing and my previous posts make it clear what I think about the race to to be the cheapest conveyancer. I am not even
convinced that it is something that the public expect.
This post is more about an adverse side effect of ‘no sale no fee’ conveyancing.
I
believe that the commercial reality of ‘no sale no fee’ purchase
conveyancing is that some solicitors (not all) will wait to receive the
mortgage offer before they do a full investigation of title.
The
introduction of defensive conveyancing, centralised in the hands of
those more interested in reducing fees than providing a service, means
that little gets done until a loan offer appears.
Meantime
an impatient public and an even more frustrated agent will point the
finger of blame in only one direction. Perhaps a compromise is to make
it perfectly clear to purchase/borrower clients that your work will be
limited to confirming instructions and ordering searches but that you
will not start reviewing the paperwork or raising detailed enquiries
until the mortgage offer is in. In the new world of OFR, form a regulatory
perspective, your terms should make it clear if you intend to operate a defensive
conveyancing protocol by waiting for the mortgage offer.
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