Why 2015 is the year of the lender

The Conveyancing Association (CA) has embarked on a mission to engage with the lender community with a view to initiating a dialogue around the hurdles that currently prevent conveyancers and lenders working on a purchase or sale from being able to carry out their respective roles both swiftly and smoothly.

The project in fact comes as part of a wider initiative the CA is driving to improve the home-buying process for all those involved which some readers may already be familiar.

It was this initiative that saw, in 2013, the launch of the CA Protocol – a document aimed at helping conveyancers ensure they are “singing from the same hymn sheet” as the conveyancers sitting on the other side of a transaction – and, in 2014, the publication of the CA’s Best Practice Guide for Conveyancers and Estate Agents – which, as its name suggests, sought to improve the relationship between conveyancers and estate agents. 

Indeed, as these ventures hopefully demonstrate, the CA aims to be the voice of the commercially-minded, service-focused conveyancer, representing conveyancing operations across the UK, with a view to shaping the future of the conveyancing industry.

We believe that this future will be a whole lot brighter – not only for conveyancers but for all those involved in the home-buying process – if communication between the various parties involved is improved.

In 2015, the year of the lender, we have been speaking to our members to gauge their views on interactions between conveyancers and lenders. We asked them to complete a short survey on the areas or stages of the home-buying process they find problematic. The results have highlighted some interesting points and we are keen to engage with lenders over these, in an open discussion we know they are keen to participate in.

This is extremely exciting as, as readers will know, the relationship between lenders and conveyancers is a tremendously important one – to improve this by facilitating communication between the two parties would have a significant and very positive effect on not only our own but our client’s experience of buying or selling a home.

At the CA we are very much looking forward to welcoming the Council of Mortgage Lenders to the next meeting of the CA on Thursday 18 June – and are particularly eager to hear their views on the existing relationship between conveyancers and lenders and, moreover, how this can be improved. We are similarly looking forward to have subsequent conversations of this nature with other organisations within the lender community in due course.

As these developments get underway, it is important to remember the underlying principle – business relationships are, after all, just that: a relationship. Therefore, for things to work out well, dialogue is absolutely crucial. I, for one, eagerly anticipate a long and happy future with our lenders as we come together to improve the home-buying process for all. 

*Eddie Goldsmith is Chairman of the Conveyancing Association and Senior Partner at Goldsmith Williams