Friday, Mar 20, 2009
Gloves are off
The Times: Solicitors to take on estate agents
Time to buy some popcorn. Solicitors accuse the agents of colluding to offer basically the same extortionate fees in an unregulated industry. And it took them this long to realise.... what hope do we have?
Posted by growler @ 08:43 AM (1048 views) Add Comment
18 Comments
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1. seanb303 said...
link goes straight to a malware site
2. growler said...
Not from my heavy regulated work connection it doesn't
3. it_is_going_with_a_bang said...
Works fine - unlike the Malware infested pc that you are apparantly using :-) (sigh )
Solicitors not getting enough money so want to start pointing the finger at estate agents. Then what? Allow them to put up their fees to make up the difference? - probably.
4. seanb303 said...
looks like it's ok now
first time round it took me to some malware site claiming i had a virus and needed to install
some silly programm
5. Seanb303 said...
it's a work computer
6. seanb303 said...
it's a work computer and it's never done that before in the 6 years that i have worked here
7. holding out said...
The unspeakable in pursuit of the unprincipled
8. growler said...
Lets face it, conveyancing solicitors cannot be doing this work by choice - they will have qualified with other ideas. In the times when the Estate Agents were booming, they kept stumm. Now that the ship is sinking, they are the proverbial rats. It's probably irritated them (as it does anyone) that the second-hand house salespeople can throw scraps (the properties) to the masses, let purchasers fight it out, and then earn a whopping fee. Now that the EA cash-cow is not ringing the solicitors phones - they have their moment. I hope the succeed. But I think the whole industry needs a re-write as I've posted before (str2007 knows this). I think this concept has massive legs as clearly those in the profession are looking to have more for their work - at the expense of the EA.
9. inbreda said...
"Heather Clayton, senior director of consumer protection at the OFT, said: “With the economic downturn we need to ensure that consumers receive a good service when buying or selling a home from a market that is competitive, innovative and well functioning.” "
"innovative"? WTF planet does she reside on?
10. greytornado said...
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. And what pray are provincial solicitors charging per hour - around £170 to £200 ? Many of the things that solicitors do - are in reality quite straightforward; they think that by making the process protracted, the punters will think it's complicated. What a bunch of parasites. The drop in conveyancing is obviously affecting their incomes badly !
11. str 2007 said...
Growler
We never did have our chat !
12. timmy t said...
In my experience solicitors charge £300 per hour to send letters which you have to draft, and to tell you that they can only advise you of facts, but deciding the best course of action is down to you. In my opinion, they realise that if you need a solicitor, you are almost certainly in some sort of stressful situation and they can exploit this by making you feel that you have no option but to use their service. They then get a student to do all the work while the partner in the firm figures out new ways to make money out of you. And they must employ secretaries on some sort of bonus scheme whereby the more typos they can cram into each letter, the more they earn. An entirely corrupt profession in my opinion.
13. growler said...
@11: :-) I know - I meant you know what I might be on about... work... etc etc...
14. sold out said...
Gloves are off, solicitors take on estate agents.
Ha ha.
would probably look like this
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NZZ4pw2gTRI
15. denzil said...
This is funny story.
Solicitors never do the conveyancing work anyway! All they do is instruct their secretaries and sign their names on the bits of paper sent to those involved with the property purchase.
Most solicitors will be on the golf course by now on a Friday. The ones who drink in my local will already be propping up the bar ready for the obligatory Friday afternoon booze up.
One thing that can be said is that at least solicitors are professional qualified whereas Estate Agents, in an attempt of portraying a professional image, created the wonderful NAEA represented by the ultimate stuffed shirt, Bolt on King. Estate Agency is one of the biggest unregulated shams going as is indictated by the sheer volume of complaints against the service they provide.
16. mark wadsworth said...
@ Greytornado, Denzil beat me to it - it's the admin staff that do the work while the solicitor just fannies about generally.
17. shipbuilder said...
The process of buying a house is relatively simple procedure, but an antiquated, inefficient joke, like a public service bureaucracy, only employing people who earn far more than any civil servant and designed to maximise their revenue. Neither solicitors nor estate agents need to be involved.
18. iguana said...
Correction needed.
It is not their secretaries that do the work, but legal executives and 'paralegals', these earn much less than secretaries as they are seen as receiving 'tuition' as part of the wonderful benefit of working long hours in crummy conditions. As for the conveyancing procedure, it is not in the least bit complex involving only the bringing together of set pieces of information, preparing standard contracts, arranging for the transfer of funds and the registration of title.
Should only take about three hours max, the searches take up most of this.