Comparing how lawyers, surveyors, estate agents, and mortgage lenders perform in the house buying process, home buyers and sellers voted lawyers as the least impressive.
According to respondents, lawyers provided not only the poorest quality of service but are the most obstructive too. They also scored badly on value for money. Respondents were mystified by lawyers’ insistence on writing letters instead of phoning or using e-mail for example. Women were particularly hostile to the legal profession: 61% of female respondents thought they were bad or terrible value for money.
Stepping in to save the day were surveyors, providing the best value for money and the best quality of service. Even though a full structural survey has a high cost, people felt it was money well spent. Surveyors only scored badly on ease of communication, but this may reflect more the fact that buyers do not generally need to speak direct to their surveyor.
Estate Agents were top performers on minimising delays and both buyers and sellers found them the easiest to get hold of, particularly because they work at weekends. However, they scored less well on quality of service and came bottom on value for money.
Mortgage lenders remain in the bottom two for the second consecutive year as mortgage borrowers expressed frustration at the difficulty of contacting their potential lender through call centres and also at the cost of rising mortgage fees.
Warren Bright, Chief Executive of propertyfinder.com said: “Lawyers are still the top villains in the house buying process. Although their role is a crucial one, many of their practices are out of date and they cause buyers and sellers an enormous level of frustration at what is already a very stressful and anxious time. Surveyors scored top marks – a good survey can make or break a deal and save buyers thousands of pounds in unexpected repairs.’
Other findings included:
Almost twice as many home buyers thought surveyors provide excellent or good quality service compared to lawyers (53% v 27%)
63% of participants said estate agents were excellent or good at minimising delays compared to 51% who felt that lawyers were poor for causing them.
45% of males voted lawyers as poor value for money but a massive 61% females ranked them bad or worst
