A conveyancing provider that offers its services via estate agents has launched a guarantee to have clients in a position to exchange contracts within 30 days.
If it doesn’t, it will forfeit its legal fee.
Elite Panel Management, which launched in January, agreed that the timescale is ambitious, given that the typical time between instruction and exchange is between eight and 12 weeks.
It said that while there have been a number of advances in technology within the conveyancing industry, as yet no provider has dared to compete on speed.
The 30-day guarantee is applicable only to freehold properties at the moment, although the service aims for 30 days on leasehold cases.
It is conditional upon their panel lawyers working on both sides of the transaction, and clients returning all paperwork or requests for information within 48 hours.
Sales director Carl Brignell said: “The key to our 30-day guarantee is firstly having a very strong team of solicitors on board, all of whom have bought into the concept of competing on service.
“Conveyancing requires teamwork and so faster timescales are only possible by having our lawyers work together. We have done lots of work behind the scenes to build a team ethos and to create standard processes and protocols between them all.
“There are never any issues within conveyancing that can’t be resolved with two experienced and pragmatic lawyers working together.
“Unlike litigation, there isn’t a winner and a loser as both parties share the same goal – the seller wants to sell and the buyer wants to buy. In these circumstances there is no reason why lawyers on both sides can’t adopt more open and amicable relationships and work together to resolve the legal issues as and when they arise.
“One simple example is that we encourage our lawyers to pick up the phone and talk things through as and when legal issues occur. Often a five-minute phone call can negate the need for several letters being sent back and forth.
“Another important aspect is strict capacity management. We agree a monthly capacity with each of our fee-earners and will never exceed this amount. An over-worked lawyer can be as detrimental to a transaction as an under-qualified one.”
Comments (14)
Hi, can you tell me how much of a referrers fee a firm on your panel would pay to you and how much to the estate agent? Could you also tell me how many files each fee earner is allowed to work at a time and is this just a cap on your files or is the fee earner also permitted to carry files from other sources such as a client instructing the firm directly?
Does the firm have to charge the client a fee dictated by you or can each of your panel firms set their own fees?
This is all gimmickery…. with, i suspect, lots of wriggle room in the terms and conditions, eg:
– in a position to exchange (ie not exchanged)
– refund our fee (is this the referral fee only?)
– what about those needing mortgages where the mortgage offer has not arrived ?
Also, by the time a referral fee, a panel management fee, and a decent legal fee to these “specialist Solicitors” has been paid out, what will the total legal fees be ?
All sounds a bit like Harry Hill’s ill fated InDeed Conveyancing service, that spookily, Chris Harris of Elite was also involved in.
It looks like the questions are now too difficult to answer………
Mr Brignall
Your website states the following:
‘Our fixed fee pricing models provide greater clarity to buyers and sellers alike.’
Any chance that it could provide greater clarity to us here – your potential customers? It is us that need to be ‘sold’ the proposition in the first place, is it not?
‘Our fees can include a commission for the referring agent, which could provide a significant new revenue stream.’
At cost to who? Solicitor? Client? Where will the responsibility lie to divulge the arrangement?
‘…we are able to guarantee the timescale through to being ready to exchange contracts thus providing you with distinct advantage over your competition…’
Are you inferring that you will only be working with one Agent per activity centre/postcode location?
Apologies – Mr Brignell, not Brignall.
Carl,
I have a few questions
How can you “…agree a monthly capacity with each of our fee-earners and will never exceed this amount” when they aren’t your fee earners as they work for an independent Solicitors firm ? Or are you able to control these independent Solicitors firms ?
You also say ““There are never any issues within conveyancing that can’t be resolved with two experienced and pragmatic lawyers working together.” – what about if contaminated land is revealed in the searches – very few , if any, Lenders would lend in those circumstances and 2 experienced & pragmatic lawyers won’t resolve it and the transaction will collapse ?
On fees you say “..In these circumstances we are able to keep our fees normal.” I am confused does the seller/buyer pay fees to Elite or do you control the amount the independent Solicitors firm charge their own clients and simply charge a panel membership fee/referral fee to the panel Solicitors?
Oh dear.
1. Acting for both buyer and seller is a massive breach of Professional Regulations – expect an investigation by the SRA if you are publicising a policy of doing this, as when considering acting for both buyer and seller on the same transaction:
“NEVER where there is a conflict of interest, or a significant risk of conflict, UNLESS it is in the best interests of the clients for a solicitor firm to act for both and the benefits outweigh the risks.
That is a very high threshold to overcome.
SRA state “Acting for a buyer and seller is an area which carries a high risk of conflict of interests and we would not expect firms routinely to act for a buyer and seller. This is because acting for a buyer and seller often involves some form of negotiation [e.g. law, search and survey results, title defects etc] over matters of substance, and there may also be inequality of bargaining power. [Acting]…should be of benefit to both clients, rather than in your own commercial interests.”
In the Law Society’s view it would even wise for a solicitor firm to record it’s decision still to act and their reason for it. Not least as the SRA have powers to investigate, as do the Law Society and Lexcel.” http://www.trethowans.com/site/library/legalnews/can_solicitor_firms_act_for_both_seller_and_buyer
2. Guaranteeing a timescale increases the likelihood of glossing over/failing to spot, legal defects.
SOLUTION?
Search for an actual Solicitors firm who are already very prompt and expert. No need to have artificial ‘acting for both parties’ scenarios, and certainly never select one who guarantees a timescale – in both cases just to attract work.
Offer actual quality, that’s what the public deserve.
Surely these are independent solicitors drawn up from their ‘panel’? Thus there is no conflict.
Their panel solicitors presumably have to work to their system.
But will that system overcome the often neverending timescales of ‘searches’. When will we see an automated same day search system? Without searches there would be fewer excuses.
There are some valid points but perhaps what is not made clear from the article is that we are a panel manager and not a law firm. We manage a panel of independent law firms and our 30 day guarantee is conditional to one law firm acting for the buyer and one acting for the seller.
We are acutely aware of the Professional Regulations and our CEO is in fact a solicitor. This is certainly not about cutting corners but objectively demonstrating how the conveyancing process can be improved by having qualified and experienced solicitors working together.
I agree with your advice to look for a solicitor firm that is ‘prompt’ and ‘expert’ but it is no longer enough to simply advertise that you are ‘prompt’ and ‘expert’ as everybody is saying and promising the same thing (even the bad ones).
Elite offers a platform from which decent lawyers can now compete on service, to show how good they really are and thus provide an alternative to the price-led ‘warehouse’ model.
If you would like to discuss the service in more detail then by all means contact me direct – carl.brignell@elitepanelmanagement.co.uk
Good idea in theory.
Not looked at the ins and out but i bet the legal fee is high if they do get it through (although probably worth it).
Also i best the disbursements are incredibly high compared to a high street convayancer to off-set the loss of not hitting the deadline.
It’s a fair assumption but it actually has the opposite effect on prices. A condition of the guarantee is that we have one of our panel firms acting on each side of the transaction. This means that our qualified and experienced lawyers are dealing with equally qualified and experienced lawyers on the other side, all of which have committed to providing a marketing-leading service.
Any lawyer will tell you that dealing with a like-minded professional on the other side of a transaction makes the job so much easier as opposed to having to liaise with a under-qualified and / or over-worked staff.
In these circumstances we are able to keep our fees normal. We’re certainly not the cheapest on the market, for obvious reasons, but we sit comfortably within the ‘average’ range.
“This means that our qualified and experienced lawyers are dealing with equally qualified and experienced lawyers on the other side…”
And what about the rest of the world, where the majority of the chain will be located?
Your sausage machine can only ever be as fast as the slowest cog within it, Mr Brignell – or the speed at which the sausage meat is fed into it.
Carl, thanks for the response.
I have not used the service, i may in the future but cannot comment on it. Be interested if you could post a copy of the costs of disbursements and the legal fee banding. You may win some business and also give us other talking points.
I will say you comments above need a little work, maybe because it is over the internet and hard to express but your comments are very generic, same thing we hear time and again from conveyancers. You all promise the world and have the same lines to give us,
30 days, or 30 working days? Any other conditions, because the shorter the chain the more realistic the target. Will be interesting to see how successful this is over the course of the next few months.