Diary Of A Highstreet Conveyancer – Tuesday March 31

Tuesday

I had a completion today – I never used to be nervous about completions as I was just so used to doing them, final searches, exchange contracts, set the completion date, update the client, receive the completion monies, do a Lawyer Checker search and then transfer the monies to the sellers’ solicitor.

As I have been doing fewer, I am thinking more about the process. The way that we send money through the ether – it can take only a matter of minutes to get to its destination – how does that happen? And money just goes round in circles: a buyer has a mortgage with Santander, buys a house, the seller has a mortgage with Santander which is redeemed with the monies from the buyers’ mortgage with Santander. And when in a chain, how bizarre is it that we repay a mortgage on a sale and if the client is porting the mortgage to their next property, we receive the mortgage monies back to buy the new house? You would think that there were easier ways of doing this. I do remember many years ago when one of the banks did try to just do an internal transfer of the mortgage monies, and it did cause confusion. And the way that there are times when the monies just fly through but if it is a firm you have never dealt with before, it can be slower.

And when thinking about this, it is important to remember that even in these times when we are not as busy as we have been, the scammers are still out there, waiting for an opportunity to pounce and as more of us are working from home, it becomes ever more important that we check the bank account details with the other firm and our own client, especially if the details have been sent by email.

Time is more valuable than money – you can get more money, but you cannot get more time

This is written by a real high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous.