Letter: Home truths

As a solicitor who has specialised in property matters for at least 15 years I was dismayed to read in "Buyer beware - bad faith is back" (Business, 5 May): "Given all the papers on a freehold sale and a quiet phone, most solicitors can complete the necessary conveyancing in a matter of hours. By comparison, weeks spent exchanging correspondence not only enables the legal profession to justify its fees ... "

If a purchaser's solicitor receives a full set of documentation from a vendor's solicitor, then it could be possible to drop everything and attend with the client at the vendor's solicitor's office for a personal exchange of contracts. That would have to be without any local authority search, as even a personal search would take a minimum of 24 hours, and the purchaser would have to exchange contracts without a mortgage offer, or survey on the property. To suggest that people could arrange for their solicitors to exchange contracts in a matter of hours is ludicrous.

If a solicitor is asked to deal with a matter urgently, then a client should expect to pay for it.

P H Emanuel

London N6