Stand Where the Storm Can See You

What is the use of phoning a buyer and seller when a transfer is stuck and there is nothing good to report? The call itself is the use. When a rates clearance certificate is late from the municipality, the parties do not see the municipality. They see silence, and silence gets filled with the worst explanation available.

A short call saying that the certificate is still with the municipality, that the figures were paid on a certain day, and that this is the next step being chased, carries no good news and still does a lot. It tells both sides that someone is holding the file. It gives a buyer who has already given notice on a rental a reason to ask the landlord for a few more weeks. It lets a seller move a removal booking before paying for a wasted day. Facts, even unwelcome ones, can be planned around. A blank cannot.

Agents and conveyancers who disappear during the hard patch usually mean no harm. They are waiting until they have something better to say. But the parties write their own story in the meantime, and those stories tend to include blame. Staying visible costs one uncomfortable call. Very few people make it.