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| Harjot Atwal |
Further to my previous article on this theme, why do I find myself focusing on the negative interactions I have with a rare minority of clients (who likely use a disproportionate amount of my time) rather than focusing my mind on my many awesome and thankful clients? Why do I remember the good less often than the bad?
Maybe, rather than engaging in dark, sarcastic humour, I need to start keeping a journal of clients with whom I have had positive experiences and refer to it when I am annoyed. But, that more positive coping mechanism is for another day. Today, I feel like venting. Why? Because sometimes it’s cathartic. It helps one to cope by trying to find the “funny” in a situation. So, I’ve come up with a few different categories of clients that amuse me, which I know will continue to recur. An additional article on this theme will follow.
The entitled client who thinks bad things only happen to them
This kind of client also wants all of the services identified in the last piece. They are similarly fee-sensitive as the clients from my last article and insist on getting a discount even though extra work has been done on their matter. Furthermore, they additionally want constant phone calls taken or returned well into the evening (on my cellphone).
If they were quick questions or updates, I would not mind. It’s more about what they say, how long it takes them to say it, and how long it takes me to bring them back to reality and reset their expectations.
In this case, the married couple from my previous article are jointly buying property but had three different mortgages cancelled, which had preliminarily been approved by three different lenders. They have so far requested one extension, but could request more depending on what their mortgage advisor (my mom) can or cannot pull off for them. Clearly, one would think there is perhaps something amiss with their assets, liabilities and/or credit scores, which would have led to these cancellations. Not these clients, though. Nothing is their fault.
Instead, they act as though this fate has not befallen anyone else ever before. For instance, when they had a disagreement with their previous mortgage advisor, they asked me to assist them in finding some other way to secure financing or to at least mediate the argument, and I mentioned perhaps “we should sleep on it” and discuss the issue again when everyone had cooler heads, I was told: “Trust me, Harjot, we haven’t slept in days.” I think that’s kind of odd since I’m trying to de-escalate, but my words are being spun around, though I go along with it. Then, they mention something like: “We can’t pay these additional extension fees and penalties. You can’t imagine the level of difficulty we are experiencing.” To which I respond: “Well, you’re not the first set of first-time homebuyers I have ever met, so I can imagine your frustration given my experiences with other clients put in similar situations.”
Now, while these comments are more out of exasperation with their mortgage situation than anything else, which is understandable, they can become time-costly in terms of the frequency with which they occur (particularly if it is during multiple phone calls a day). In a sense, you’re walking on eggshells (to avoid having your words spun around down some other rabbit hole of potentially self-destructive worrying) as you need to constantly calm them down and reassure them that everything possible is being done to assist them in their closing.
Furthermore, they are requesting I do additional work outside the scope of my retainer like trying to find them an alternate means of securing financing, which is technically not prohibited by s.6(6) of the Mortgage Brokerages, Lenders and Administrators Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 29 as lawyers can trade in mortgages, but blurs the line between my separate and distinct roles as lawyer on some transactions and mortgage agent on others. Honestly, this makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Thankfully, I was able to just mediate the disagreement with the original mortgage advisor rather than potentially expose myself to a conflict of interest between two different sets of duties and licences.
I just find it odd that some clients want to spend a lot of time talking on the phone, and essentially ask me to give them therapeutic interventions to address their increasing worries and do extra non-retainer work, while also being fee-sensitive and trying to negotiate me down on my bill.
Post-Writing Note: There have been additional developments since I wrote the above a few months ago (it just took me some time to get the nerve to share). First, the clients fired my mom as their mortgage adviser. Then, they fired me as their lawyer. I sent them all of their documents in their file and explained all of the work I had done for them, such as: negotiating an extension, ensuring the builder’s lawyer gave them the $24,000 HST rebate off of their balance due on closing (which had not been included previously due to the shoddy work of the lawyer they chose for their occupancy closing), getting all of the builder’s lawyer’s documents signed, getting their mortgage file solicitor-complete and ready for funding before being cancelled due to their own financial issues, walking them through getting their accounts set up with Enbridge and other utility companies as per the builder’s requirements, etc.
Regardless, not only did they fire me, but they refused to compensate me for anything. I literally asked them by email to just send me an amount they thought was fair. Then, they called my mom’s employee (even though they have my cellphone number and had called it repeatedly in the past) to say they were paying me nothing considering their extension fees, a new child at home and the cancellation of their mortgages (again, not my fault or anything to do with me). After that, I just asked them to compensate me for the fees I paid to the government for title searches and execution certificate searches (about $100 total). I sent the searches to them, so they could pass them off to their new lawyer, in order to try to save them some funds by not duplicating searches. They agreed on the phone, but then apparently forgot about it and were never to be heard from again. As far as I know, they were eventually able to close their transaction and lived happily ever after.
Thankfully, I did work in one amusing comment on my last phone call with them amidst my usual nice-but-firm guy routine (which is still making me smile) before they insincerely agreed to pay me something: “I suppose I should thank you for the privilege of paying out of my own pocket to work on your transaction”.
This is the second instalment of a three-part series. Part one: Time thieves: The clients you remember.
Harjot Atwal is a real estate lawyer. In 2023, he opened up his own shop, Atwal Law Firm. You can reach him via email at harjot@atwallawfirm.ca, by phone at 905-264-8926 or on LinkedIn.
The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the author’s firm, its clients, Law360 Canada, LexisNexis Canada or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.
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