The announcement that the joint Law Society and Mastek conveyancing portal Veyo was ceasing development is not an occasions for “I told you so” according to Rob Hailstone of the Bold Legal Group.
Rob Hailstone said: “The recent announcement, by the LPT board, that Veyo was being wound up came as no surprise. The only surprise was that the Law Society President, Jonathan Smithers, mentioned Veyo only a few hours earlier at the Conveyancing Association conference in London.
“He gave no inkling that the demise of Veyo was imminent. In fact, he implied almost the opposite.
“I have been following the development of Veyo closely for the last two years and I think it is fair to say, it has been one disaster after another.”
Shares in Indian-founded developers Mastek dropped 4% on the Bombay Stock Exchange following the announcement.
Mastek themselves have remained tight lipped on the issue, with the company briefly contributing to the Law Society’s announcement on the issue saying: “This was a hard decision to take, but is commercially the right one for all of us.”
According to reports, as well as the £600,000 invested by the Law Society for a 60% stake, they also paid £2,668,000 to Mastek during its development.
Des Hudson, the Society’s former Chief Executive and the former Chair of Veyo, estimated last autumn that the total cost of development and launch of the portal, to paid by the Society and Mastek, would be £10 million.
Rob Hailstone said: “In my opinion, the development of Veyo should never have commenced without the full consultation of Law Society members and Veyo should have been wound up many, many months ago.
“Most conveyancing solicitors I have been speaking to over the last two years have been saying Veyo would never launch, and if it did, it would fail. If they knew that, why didn’t the Law Society and the people developing it?
“Not a day to gloat or to say ‘I told you so’, but a very sad and bad day for all connected with this shambles.”
