AI phone assistant for conveyancing solicitors
A conveyancing call is usually a chain question with a date attached. Tel-Agent takes the property, the matter reference and the deadline.
- Matter reference
- Which property
- Exchange date
Why a conveyancing phone interrupts the work it is about
Conveyancing calls are mostly chase calls - clients, agents and the other side, all asking where things are. Each one takes a solicitor out of the file they are working on, and the answer usually requires opening a different file entirely. The interruption costs more than the call.
How the AI receptionist handles a conveyancing call
It answers and asks for the matter reference.
It asks which property, because most callers have a sale and a purchase running.
It asks who is calling - client, agent or the other side.
It takes whether a date is fixed for exchange or completion.
The chase lands as a written note against the right file, to be answered in one batch.
What the agent is told to ask
Written by you, in your own words, as the assistant’s instructions.
What a conveyancing phone assistant should and should not do
What it does
- Takes chase calls without breaking the file in progress
- Captures the matter reference and the property
- Identifies whether the caller is the client, the agent or the other side
- Records any fixed exchange or completion date
- Keeps matter data on the firm's own machine
What it never does
- Give an update on where a matter has got to
- Confirm that a date will be met
- Discuss a file with the other side or an agent
- Advise on searches, enquiries or a contract
- Send matter references to a third-party server
Questions
Can it give a client an update?
No. It records that they asked and against which matter. An update is a statement about a live file, and getting one wrong on a conveyancing chain is expensive for everybody in it.
Why does it ask who is calling?
Because what can be said differs completely. A client, an estate agent and the solicitor on the other side are three different levels of confidentiality, and an assistant should not be deciding that in the moment - it routes instead.
Does it handle calls from the other side?
It takes them and marks them as such, so a fee earner sees who is calling before ringing back. It does not discuss anything.
What about exchange and completion dates?
Whether one is fixed is asked, because it is the only thing that reliably separates an urgent chase from a routine one.
Does it work for a firm doing both sales and purchases?
That is why it asks which property. A caller with a linked sale and purchase has two matters, and a note filed against the wrong one is worse than no note.
Does the EU AI Act allow an AI to answer a conveyancing update?
Yes, under Article 50 of Regulation 2024/1689, which asks that the caller be told they are speaking to a machine - that line belongs in the greeting you configure. Nothing about this work falls under Annex III, the list of high-risk uses. The distinction the Act draws is between assisting and deciding, and this agent assists: it never gives legal advice or runs a conflict check. Austria's KI-Servicestelle at RTR publishes the same reading of the transparency duty.
Who is the data controller for what a caller to a conveyancing firm says on the phone?
You are. A conveyancing update is material that is usually privileged from the first sentence of the call, and Tel-Agent is self-hosted with your own model keys, so the recording, the transcript and the record it writes stay on your server and never reach Dpro GmbH. There is no processor agreement to sign with us because we never receive the data, and the source is AGPL-3.0, so you can check that rather than take our word for it.
Can a conveyancing firm run this in the United States?
There is no single federal AI statute to comply with, but a phone line carries older rules. US state bar rules on confidentiality reach any vendor that can hear a client call, which is an argument for having no vendor at all. Consent to record is set state by state, and California and Illinois among others want every party to agree. Running the software yourself makes you the caller of record, so the disclosure and the recording switch are yours to set.
Not usable yet. The day it answers a real call will be a release, not a newsletter.
Watch the repository
