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INDUSTRY leaders have joined a call for a better, more practical qualification benchmark to address a worrying skills gap among conveyancing newcomers.
With the sector facing unprecedented challenges, including ever-increasing demands for compliance, professional bodies are adamant more needs to be done by education providers.
“From an educational perspective, those coming into the industry do not have enough practical skills,” said AIC NSW President Ann Blannin-Ferguson.
“This is an industry that is run by small businesses. Most have fewer than five people working there.”
Blannin-Ferguson says even straight out of college, recruits should be able to converse with clients straight away.
“And I’m concerned that’s not the case,” she said. “They need to be able to run files and talk to vendors to tell them why they need all the certificates that are required, at the very least.”
But as small business owners, principals don’t have time to offer that practical training, a concern echoed by AIC NSW chief executive Chris Tyler. “The criticism I get from members is that they get new people out, who supposedly have just graduated, and they can’t run a file,” Tyler said. “They just don’t have the skills.”
Blannin-Ferguson is also worried about the ease which relatively new conveyancers can become independently licensed after just two years tutelage, without rigorous regulatory checks.
Currently, conveyancers can obtain a licence after just two years working under a licensed conveyancer.
“I don’t think that’s enough time and I don’t think the level of experience of the practitioner they worked under is high enough,” Blannin-Ferguson added. “I think it should be at least three years, and the licensed conveyancer should have at least five years’ experience.”
The fact that conveyancers can progress from a restricted licence to a fully-fledged independent practitioner with barely any government agency checks is a bugbear for Blannin-Ferguson, who has personal experience.
In NSW, a conveyancer with the two years’ experience simply applies to Fair Trading for a full licence.
“But there is no due diligence – no one there to ask questions, quiz conveyancers about what they know,” Blannin-Ferguson said.
“And I know, because I know someone who worked for me who decided to get their licence. No one came back to me for a reference.”
Other conveyancers told the Australian Conveyancer that this is an ongoing problem.
Ann is passionate that conveyancing is seen as an important part of the legal profession and recognises those falling short need to be pulled up.
Referring to a Facebook page used by conveyancers asking even the most basic questions, Ann admitted to contacting the posters privately to ask if they had not learnt those skills at university.
“I don’t want to attack them, just find out why they didn’t learn these things as part of their qualifications,” she said, adding that one way new conveyancers can continue to learn is by seeking out a mentor.
Paul Denny Principal Craig Radford has a similar view of the lax entry requirements to be given a full conveyancing licence.
“There’s an easy path to someone getting a licence and running their own business,” he said.
“After you finish a two-year course and you’ve got two years of experience working in the industry, you can go out and open your own business.
“That’s not anywhere near enough to be able to run your own business, particularly if you’re running it as a sole practitioner,” Radford said.
“We see that a lot of sole practitioners asking questions that they should really know the answers to.”
It is an even shorter time to qualify for a licence in Victoria: just one year.
That’s not enough, according to AIC VIC President Shakila Maclean, who is another industry leader echoing calls for better practical qualifications for new recruits. “We need the regulations to change,” she said.
Chris Tyler highlights COVID as one reason for sliding standards, the pandemic forcing a move to online lessons, and a lack of rigorous exams.
“Education did suffer as they’ve gone online,” he said, “because it’s a very collegiate vocation, and you need to deal with other people.
AIC WA has teamed up with REIWA to be a Registered Training Provider to create a pipeline of new settlement agents.
Feedback from members was that some newly qualified settlement agents did not hit the ground running as fast as they should, according to AIC WA chief executive Brook Durling.
The issue, he said, was the Advanced Diploma of Conveyancing was too generic.
“As we are the peak industry body, we have a vested interest in developing amazing settlement agents for Western Australia,” he said.
§ IT’S TIME TO TOUGHEN UP
Former AICSA president Denise McKay highlights a lack of rigour in the course undertaken by conveyancing students.
“New conveyancers coming out from TAFE, which is the main place to get the Diploma in SA, really do not have enough knowledge to be fully qualified as a registered conveyancer,” Denise said.
“The course is limited and the everyday practicalities are not robust enough.
“What we are seeing in SA are students who qualify and setup their own businesses straightaway.
“The risks involved in allowing this are significant as it is the old adage ‘you don’t know what you don’t know.’
“Whilst I was president of the AICSA we were advocating for a minimum of two years working in a conveyancing office before being allowed to set up a business on your own.
“This is where they would get the knowledge and practicalities that they require to both minimise risk and to be a better conveyancer.
“The subjects taught are a good starting point, but the course keeps getting dumbed down rather than beefed up.
“What used to take four years is now completed in two and conveyancing is not an easy process by any means.
“With all the cybercrime, fraud and money laundering that is now prevalent in our industry this is of a major concern.
“There are now apprenticeships and conveyancer ready programs being held in SA which is a great way of teaching new conveyancers the ropes but none of these are compulsory.
“These need to addressed and the minimum CPC requirements should be compulsory for the renewal of a conveyancing licence each year legislation. The government currently does not appear to take the industry seriously enough.”