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TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

New industry body aims to simplify and modernise buying and selling

Representatives from estate and lettings agencies as well as professional organisations have formed The Home Buying And Selling Group with a common theme of being “motivated by a genuine desire to effect change.”

The group includes agents, property lawyers, mortgage lenders and representatives of organisations such as Land Registry, the Law Society, the Society of Licensed Conveyancers, Conveyancing Association, Bold Legal Group, the Residential Property Surveyors Association, Northwoods, The Property Ombudsman, Rightmove, and the Building Societies Association.

Its first meeting has been held, hosted by property marketing firm TwentyCi and chaired by industry expert Kate Faulkner who runs Propertychecklists. 

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Matt Prior, an official from the Ministry of Housing Communities & Local Government, also attended. 

A statement afterwards from online agency Emoov, which was also present, said the meeting’s attendees were confident that if “solutions are developed involving all of the industry from the start, huge differences could be made to consumers’ buying and selling experience.”

Emoov says research is now being conducted by the group into how to create more certainty in the buying process through binding offers or reservations, as well as ways to provide consumers with better data to help their decision making process.  

Smaller expert teams have been set up to investigate providing more information before sale, creating more certainty at offer stage, improving education, both of consumers and people within the property industry and ways to solve leasehold issues.   

Emoov founder Russell Quirk says the group’s members are “poised to use their various industry and regulatory expertise to at last improve the archaic and problematic house buying and selling process.”

The group appears to be the latest working to the government’s high-profile aim of improving, simplifying and modernising the house sale and purchase business.

Conveyancing bodies have for some months been issuing statements and proposals aimed at avoiding high rates of fall-throughs during transactions, while the Ombudsman Services redress scheme has withdrawn from day-to-day complaint handling to consider longer-term single-scheme redress options for housing.

  • Peter Ambrose

    I just wonder ... With all these people in the room ....
    Will they be discussing the impact of bribery on transaction times and instigating more transparency about panel manager driven fees?
    Or would that just be TOO modern for this corrupted industry that is party to consumer rip-offs?
    Let's not worry about leasehold questions, let's ask why consumers are paying more to referrers and their panel manager pimps than they are to the lawyers?

  • Matt Faizey

    NEWSFLASH

    The National Association of Chicken Coop Security has been formed to discuss nationwide deficiencies in the construction methods and security devices used in the construction of coops.

    NACCS, headed up by Frank Fox will comprise of leading fox's from throughout the country. It is believed significant input from fox's nationwide will lead to many breakthroughs in this nationally important topic

  • Rob Hailstone

    Representatives from your industry are both involved and welcome Matt.

  • Matt Faizey

    hi Rob, Happy Monday.

    You tell me when, and where I will be there. With a serious and professional head on.

    I'd be delighted.

  • Rob Hailstone

    If you email me Matt, I will let you have the details: rh@boldgroup.co.uk

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    Confidence of the public in the home moving process, and a sharp drop in abortive deals will be achieved by tackling THE biggest absurdity within the conveyancing part of the process - that any employee in a legal business can be badged as a conveyancer. They do not need to know a single bit of property law, or conveyancing procedure.

    When you have two excellent conveyancers opposite each other, deals fly through as they click their fingers and legal issues are instantly sorted, they have pace through confidence, and deals exchange - there is little time for deals to fall apart.

    But now add back into the mix - the reality in 2018 - the following 'conveyancers':

    1. those who must have their files checked before exchange can happen!?
    2. those where a different person handles a different part of the transaction, so you never know who to call
    3. where their website offers no direct telephone or email for every single conveyancer
    4. where the estate agent says they would love not to recommend them but their own HQ says they must as cash is trading hands
    5. where only conveyancing is offered, they have no other lawyers specialising in all the other legal disciplines to address the impact conveyancing has on - wills, trusts, family, children, employment, disputes, litigation, personal industry, deputyship,
    6. where they do not handle unregistered conveyancing, or charge the public more to handle it
    7. those who are too small to offer cover for holiday or illnesses

    .....the list goes on and on.

    And is it surprising we have to read Reports such as this one: https://www.ftadviser.com/property/2018/02/14/hmrc-to-update-guidance-amid-stamp-duty-confusion/

    How many transactions abort because of the above factors? How many members of the public faced a drawn out and stressful deal when it need not have been? How many legal defects now exist behind the residential properties in England & Wales?

    It is so bad we must spend 60% of our time chasing the other conveyancer, and we now warn clients when we face certain organisations, and types of conveyancers that they have to expect delay. Ludicrous to have to do that, but it proves true too often.

    So, please The Home Buying And Selling Group, please address the above as the biggest single factor -
    as you will see dramatic improvement to transaction speed, public delight with conveyancers, and confidence in the whole process. An easy win for anyone interested in making more than little steps.


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