Dear Kirstie,
I’ve just read in the Daily Telegraph your brilliant article about housing in the UK, identifying the very real problem around the decline in the quality of new build homes, and taking issue with the quality of legal support offered by some lawyers who handle buying and selling.
As you point out: “In the old days we had local solicitors who knew the properties and conditions in their areas, and were happy to put their names on deals. These days we rely on cut-price conveyancing factories where no one knows what they’re doing and, unless a case is perfect, they can’t process it. Huge numbers of deals fall through unnecessarily because of this.”
Well when it comes to conveyancing factories you are right. There are many of them out there all too keen to take your money and deliver a poor service. They employ mostly “case handlers” – many of whom aren’t qualified lawyers, who answer to a solicitor who’s managing many of them at the same time. And to further keep costs down they are all based in a central location. But inevitably it leads to a poor service because the local knowledge and the talent simply isn’t there. It’s high volume but poor quality.
But imagine if you could provide a conveyancing service using experienced lawyers with a local knowledge, and yet still do it at a competitive price.
Well you don’t have to imagine because that’s exactly what we do at Setfords. Our conveyancing lawyers are consultants – all highly experienced and working nationwide. Because they operate remotely our firm’s overheads are much lower, meaning we can offer conveyancing services at a competitive price. Not only that, but those services are provided not by an inexperienced case handler – one of a number working to a single lawyer – but by a talented lawyer with years of experience.
It solves the problem you have identified, and having seen a 20% increase in turnover in the past year, we can confidently say more and more people are realising that if you want a lawyer to help you buy or sell your home, using a consultant from Setfords is the sensible choice.
You are right when you say the housing market is “broken” but you are wrong to think that it applies across the board. There are many house builders and lawyers out there who take pride in what they do. And Setfords ranks highly amongst them.
Guy Setford
CEO, Setfords Solicitors
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