Microsoft's global outage may cause stress and disruption for people moving home on Friday 13, but a property expert said many firms use purpose-built portals that will remain unaffected.
Ian Harris, president at property professionals' body NAEA Propertymark, said the failure of vital systems can cause serious and unexpected stress, particularly for those on their moving day. He noted that email plays an integral role in ensuring information reaches its intended recipients, and downtime could cause temporary delays in the final stages of completing a house sale.
Purpose-Built Portals Unaffected
Harris said that although many agents, lenders and conveyancers use purpose-built online portals, which will remain unaffected by the current outage, the worst-case scenario is that some people could experience delays while contingency communication methods are put in place.
Analysis published by Rightmove on Friday indicates that people avoid moving on Friday 13, despite the last day of the working week being busy for home moves as people use the weekend to get settled in. The analysis of Land Registry data going back to 1995 found that Friday 13 tends to be the quietest Friday for home moves, and that the 13th is generally the quietest day of the month for completions.
Industry Response
A Rightmove spokesperson said its website was working as usual, adding: "We're hearing that agents are working hard over the phone to help those home movers who are completing today."
Jeremy Leaf, principal of Jeremy Leaf & Co in north London, said on Friday: "So far we haven't experienced a problem on a completion of a sale or letting today." He added: "As a contingency, we're advising customers to try to use telephones or even communicate by hand where possible."
Tomer Aboody, founding director of specialist lender MT Finance, said: "We are making use of what we have, and keeping clients updated via phone calls and other means of communication. Internally as an institution, we have back-up plans for internal communications to keep the business going, without affecting the day to day too much."
