The Law Society is to pilot upfront conveyancers’ information for home buyers and sellers.
This will involve the TA6 form which contains crucial information relating to the sale, covering compliance with building and planning applications, the supply of services, flooding, and common parts shared with neighbours as well as information relating to Japanese Knotweed and septic tanks.
Until now the information was only collated post-offer, after a solicitor has been instructed.
However the Law Society has identified what it calls “key early marketing questions” that can be completed upfront in a transaction in what will be known as the TA6 Part 1.
“Technological change in the conveyancing market has accelerated as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic” says Stephanie Boyce, the president of the Law Society of England and Wales. This project will continue that technological advancement and innovation, helping consumers, estate agents and solicitors to seamlessly collect key marketing information using the familiar, but wholly digitised TA6 workflow.
“The answers to the questions in the new TA6 Part 1 will help to inform a buyer’s decision to purchase and will support industry-wide initiatives to begin the systemic collection of up-front information about a property.
“We look forward to making the TA6 Part 1 available to our network of forms’ licensees and solicitors following the conclusion of the pilot and are hopeful it can assist in reducing the time it takes to achieve completion from the point of instruction, as well as supporting earlier instruction of a solicitor.”
The Law Society says it will provide more updates on the pilot in the near future.
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This is a positive move, but does it go far enough to really help speed up the process, make it less stressful and reduce fall throughs? Surely, that needs earlier (seller) conveyancer involvement to use the ‘legally dead’ time whilst a property is being marketed to create a Property Transaction Pack (PTP). My colleagues and I are currently beta testing (with agents and conveyancers working together) our PTP portal (Synapse), which will be free for agents and lawyers to use, and will be available shortly.
What is in a PTP?
Sounds like what Gazeal are already doing? and have been for some time
It us Stevhen
I thought the BASPI was being used to collect up front information?
the BASPI is not going to become widely adopted because it is an additional long form which contains information to provide the TA 6. Just complete the TA6 and provide the documents to support your answers.
This is a great idea - we have just spent £1000 & 3 months on an aborted transaction that would never had even begun had the information about lack of building regs been disclosed up front.
Despite us saying as soon as it came to light "No regularisation, No sale' the solicitors merrily continued racking up the fees whilst sitting on the information.
Quite disgusted with conveyancers actions through the whole process.
Tricia, speak to Gazeal they stop this exact thing from happening
What is in a PTP? Whatever the seller’s conveyancer believes a buyer’s conveyancer will need in order to exchange contracts, and as they act for buyers 50% of the time, they should know.
Baby steps? Property Searches Direct make all legal protocol forms available to sellers with the ability to buy full Search packs based on postcode risk on the day vendors go onto the market (or before!). All Searches will be commissioned immediately and may even be all back before a buyer is found, how is that for getting ahead of the curve? Completed Searches can then be transferred to buyers solicitor (and seller refunded) Lawyers get on with the lawyering. Win win for all parties. Job done.
Our i-PACK service already provides a customer journey that enables clients to complete their official transaction forms online at the point of listing. We pull this information into an agent branded mini website for every listing along with property data sets, media links and lead generation tools for agents.
The i-PACK provides the agent with the perfect vehicle to enact change whilst supporting their brand and proven listing tool. This is definitely the way forward but also requires a nurture and sweep-up process. Bruce Adams | Hiveeas
'If only they had used a robot' - that is what Zara thinks. Why not automate the whole process, then you could have conveyancing 24/7 - how long would it take to conveyance the change of title on a property then. This of course will never catch on - who would ever want to do anything as important as buy a property from the comfort of their mobile screen, whatever next they will be suggesting we can start accessing our bank accounts on our mobiles, no that is far too dangerous better to queue at the bank ... wait a minute my bank just closed for ever today, maybe this tech thing could catch on.
Andrew. I think this is a step towards your goal. It will not be reached over night but getting this information into the process as data rather than answers on a form is a big step forward. I remember discussing our PIP Vault with you and sharing this information with potential buyers during the mrketing phase of the sale can only help the process. tjhm
The Prop Tech market is increasingly driving an initiative whereby they claim to have solutions capable of substantially speeding up the home buying transaction. Many appear to consider improving the level of property information and data availability the solution, whilst appearing to lack understanding as to what the real issues are that create extended transaction periods.
A residential property transaction regularly comprises 7 key stakeholders, Sellers, Buyers, Sellers Sales Agents, Sellers’ Solicitors, Buyers’ Solicitors, Mortgage Lenders, Mortgage Brokers and Surveyors, plus potentially more with, related sale Agents and Solicitors.
Far from working together towards a common goal, they are often adversarial in their approach, treating one another more like competing opponents than fellow professional colleagues and advisors.
A “Blame-Game” culture exists whereby it is seldom possible to evidence who really is “the fly in the ointment”, when transactions do not progress at the pace we should rightfully expect.
Once the basic terms of the sale are agreed and solicitors are instructed, the agents role should be almost complete, other than maintaining an interest in their buyers status should they require mortgage finance, or have a related sale property to dispose of.
However, to protect the integrity and security of their sale, experience dictates that should they not chase progression with both sets of solicitors, progression can be painfully slow……. But why.?
What appears to go unrecognised during all the discussions about the potential of Prop Tech to shorten transaction times, is that the technology required to accurately track and evidence efficient progression of a matter from when solicitors are instructed to legal completion is widely unavailable in the conveyancing market.
The legal sale and purchase process comprises of over 100 individual tasks requiring chronological completion, with the Seller’s Solicitor responsible for circa 30 tasks, the Buyer’s Solicitor circa 60 tasks, the Client 10 tasks and actions, all of which are influenced by time lost waiting for Mortgage Confirmation and Related Sale Issues.
Some law firms claim to provide progression apps, however they milestone little more than the dates of Instruction, Exchange, and Completion, failing to clearly define, document, and evidence the timely completion of all the key tasks expected by stakeholders within the process.
In addition, with many law firms allocating their conveyancers excessive caseloads of 100 plus Sales and Purchases, systems capable of assisting with proactive progression by prioritising the next achievable task, are simply not available.
It is the misconception that leaving an individual conveyancer to unilaterally prioritise the tasks involved with progressing the equivalent of 100 plus mini projects, without technological support, that is preventing improvement of transaction times.
Given that many law firms demonstrate the inability to even consider the time required by their staff to deliver the quality service your clients deserve, whereby a conveyancer allocated 100 matters having given you a quick 10 minute update weekly, has just 12.5 minutes per week to consider and action a sale or purchase, it is hardly any surprise that some transactions drag on for months. Quite simply, should you not be able to limit the number of transactions your recommended law firm’s individual conveyancers are transacting at any given time, and should you not implement a detailed progression platform to evidence efficient progression, they will not, and transaction times will never improve.
Quite simply, in addition to assisting onboarding with little more than ID, AML, and Property Information Form (PIF) solutions, Prop Tech should develop a Business Process Management system capable of clearly identifying where transactions really are, and evidence who needs to do what to advance matters. In achieving this, they could truly claim to be influencing speedier progression.
A cloud-based, pay-on-use, mandatory model that ALL recommended or panel-based Solicitors would be contracted to use by their work provider, would guarantee early adoption and as such a speedy ROI for the Prop Tech investors. Independently retained Solicitors, reticent to adopt, would be held accountable by time-based KPI’s, and Alerts, within the evidenced based process, and as such should their inactivity be creating delays, forced to improve by pressure from their clients alongside yourselves.
If the market is serious about creating a solution to reduce processing periods, let us start with an accurate understanding of what is slowing everything down. The current ID, AML and PIF solutions will merely be swallowed up during the time spent awaiting Mortgage confirmations, and as such considered marginal in its success.
If we really are serious about finding a solution to this eternal problem, let us stop ignoring the “Elephant in the Room” and create accountability by fully utilising the technology available.
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