68% of polled conveyancers/solicitors say they have “constant stress” or “a lot of stress”

Female conveyancers/solicitors at 62% are more likely to have high levels of workplace stress than male conveyancers/solicitors at 57%.

Levels of stress amongst conveyancers/solicitors who work from an office 100% of the time is higher (68%) than those with a hybrid working arrangement.

“Less work should be the goal, but as the business owner we just don’t have the margins to miraculously pull an extra £30k out of our back pockets, the government are battering us with extra legislation, with an unread list of deadlines to meet, and increasing the minimum wage is adding pressure to increase wages for the more senior staff who are getting discontent with the reducing gap between pay - so where are we supposed to get more staff from?”

“The nature of the job and the red tape is what needs to change. Training of staff in other firms would help greatly. Conveyancing will always be stressful due to the majority of clients wanting to
move yesterday!”

“Better understanding across the board i.e. from other professionals, estate agents, banks…some professionals don’t understand the need to communicate properly, which creates distressing situations and unrealistic expectations.”

“Managing expectations of clients and other parties in the chain. Estate agents sometimes make life more difficult by imposing unrealistic time frames and not checking with conveyancers whether the time frame can be achieved.”

Surge in Transaction Volumes
Conveyancing transactions all but halted with the first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, but pent-up demand was turbo-charged by the Treasury’s stamp duty land tax ‘holiday’ introduced in July 2020. Originally intended to finish at the end of March 2021, it was eventually given a staggered ending – first in June 2021, and then for lower-priced properties in September 2021.