Things will never be the same again
It's really fashionable to talk about the "new normal" these days but no-one really knows what this actually is.
If we did, then we could start planning for the future, because at least we'd know where to start.
However, the one thing we HAVE learned over the past few months, is that nothing is predictable. As events showed last Friday with the partial lock-down in greater Manchester with just a few hours' notice, these days, even the government can change quickly.
Which is what makes the events in Dockenfield last Thursday even the more remarkable.
A little bit of background
A few months ago, Land Registry sent me an email say that it was going to allow property deeds to be signed electronically.
Which was nice.
Once I'd picked myself off the floor, I read the email again and saw that they said that it would be in future, so I filed that snippet of information in the "laterbase".
Then, out of the blue last Monday, I got another email from Land Registry. This time they said that they'd looked into this electronic signature thing and figured that, done the right way, they will start accepting them that very day.
Well.
That was a challenge that needed accepting.
One of our clients was buying a new flat just outside Farnham in Surrey and he agreed to take part in the first electronic deed signing in this country.
I am delighted to confirm that I was the formal witness to that Deed - a process that took just a couple of minutes. Something that in the past could take up to a week, and is the cause of so many delays in property transactions.
Of course, we didn't do this alone, and I want to thank Scott Bozinis and the delivery team from Infotrack for helping to make this ground-breaking event happen.
Sadly some things do not change
As I explain below ( in the Good News section) the significant amount of work we've been winning means I'm back on the recruiting trail.
Which gives me a unparalleled insight into how other law firms work.
The feedback we get from candidates about their working environments ranges from the shocking to the downright depressing. With increasing numbers of law firms laying off staff and some closing their doors for the last time, frankly, I'm not sad to see some of them go.
One lawyer explained to us that she had a difficult time when she joined her last firm, because their filing system was four cardboard boxes on the floor behind her. Full of files that had no paperwork in them. There was no case management system, just a set of Google drive folders to save emails into.
I spoke to a legal executive who had been made redundant, because her previous firm couldn't win enough work to sustain them. She did say that they were charging £350 for a case, because the boss thought they had to charge low fees to win work.
Guess he was wrong.
But, it turns out that this was not the worst case.
A solicitor explained that his firm was really busy, but this was just because they charged low fees. How low is low, I asked? £275 for a new-build purchase, he explained.
Yes, that is low.
Another legal assistant told us of her frustration at her previous place as they used a single Microsoft Word document to track ALL their cases. She did laugh when she explained one time she went to lunch, still with the file open, so no-one else in the company could add any notes on their cases.
With an approach like that, it was of no surprise she was sadly being made redundant along with her colleagues.
No signs of this bubble bursting any time soon
Ever since Boris told us in May that we should "go and sell houses" we've seen things go from strength to strength,
While the most common feedback I hear from agents is we need to "make hay while the sun shines", it seems that the sun just continues to shine.
We've just got to to the end of July and our numbers still keep going up.
And the figures are remarkable.
Nearly 100% increase of new instructions compared to July 2019.
The even better news is that exchanges are starting to come through, up 9% over this time last year.
So with all that recruiting I'm doing to keep up with this demand our offices are starting to feel a little crowded ... expansion into more space is definitely on the cards.
Looks like things really will never be the same again.