Firms that dabble in conveyancing should stop 'messing around', the director of a specialist firm has said in a self-described ‘rant’ prompted by frustration in an ongoing case.

Under the headline ‘Stop the messing around – conveyancing rant alert’, licensed conveyancer Rose Davis, managing director of Nottingham-based Davis & Co Property Lawyers, posted an open letter on LinkedIn to ‘that medium-sized firm of solicitors with a good reputation that has ruined [the] last few days in the office’.

Davis is acting for the seller and the firm is acting for the buyer in a small chain that also includes a vendor and newbuild developer.

'You advised me a month ago that you were ready to exchange,' Davis said. 'When we spoke last week, you wanted to complete on 1 September. We could not agree 1st and finally settled on 8th September. Since then, I have been chasing and chasing you. We put you on the daily nagpile and rung you at 11.03, 12.07 and 2.10. Finally, at 3pm yesterday you told us that although you were set up for completion on 8th September you could not exchange.'

Rose Davis

Davis: 'Will firms who are not really interested in conveyancing stop messing about with it?'

Davis said the other firm discovered some of the purchase money was coming from a remortgage but there were issues. The firm is now waiting for a mortgage offer but still hopes to draw down remortgage funds next week.

However, Davis said this was unacceptable.

‘You have put unnecessary strain on my clients and their vendors who are placing their belongings in storage to accommodate this move at a cost of several thousand pounds because you did not undertake your compliance at the beginning of this transaction. If you had done so, you would have checked the source of funds right at the beginning and then you would have been aware of the related remortgage,' she said in her post.

‘Instead, you have virtually completed the transaction and then looked at the source of funds which is why you are now on the back foot. Of the many staff employed by your firm, only two specialise in conveyancing. Will you firms who are not really interested in conveyancing stop messing about with it? It is a very dangerous pursuit and should not be undertaken lightly.’

Davis, who qualified as a licensed conveyancer over a decade ago and has been running her firm since 2018, told the Gazette that checking source of funds at the start of a transaction is a ‘fundamental basic’.