Your correspondent Ian McLachlan believes that conveyancing is a ‘disorganised mess’ and he is probably correct (see [2009] Gazette, 19 February, 11). However, it is not a mess made by conveyancers. Clients and solicitors no longer trust each other, so everything has to be documented – even the ownership of satellite dishes and compliance with ancient planning permissions. Everyone is trying to cut costs, including the DIY-ers who fit windows and convert lofts without complying with increasingly complex building regulations. Home information packs now often contain out-of-date searches and insufficient title information. The list goes on.

Conveyancers have to perform the delicate task of juggling many balls in order to keep clients, estate agents, mortgage lenders and other solicitors happy. Even if the job was as easy as changing the names of the owners of a property at the Land Registry, the new Land Registry forms have made this task twice as complicated!

Moreover, if a property is repossessed in the future, mortgage lenders will seek to sue conveyancers for any perceived ‘negligence’ in order to recoup their losses. In the present climate we cannot tell what will happen to a property after its file has left our cabinets, so we must do as thorough a job as we can – not just to assist clients, but to cover our own backs.

Marcella King, MacNamara King, Warwick