Some forward-thinking conveyancing practices are seeing the current property market downturn not as a disaster, but an opportunity.
We know THE story by now: property and plot sales are declining, deals between buyers and sellers are either aborting or are not being struck at all and mortgages are down 70 per cent. For law firms’ conveyancing departments, business is dropping off, and many firms are reducing or even closing their residential property practices.
Meanwhile others have succumbed to high-volume panels that a year ago they would not have been seen dead joining.
But a defeatist attitude is not helpful, according to those practitioners beating a different path through the thorns of the approaching recession. Licensed conveyancer Tracy Thompson points out that “making redundancies only serves to fuel the economic crisis”. She is pleased to report that at her firm, Liverpool-based Morecrofts, there have been no redundancies at all.
“There is an alternative,” says Thompson, “whereas many local firms are making redundancies, Morecrofts are very much looking at internal systems to consolidate practice areas and improve efficiency to allow the product to continue.”