The Conveyancing Quality Scheme and the Law Society C...

The Law Society introduced their new kite mark' the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) a few years ago and there are now over 3000 solicitor firms who are accredited.

Membership achievement is designed to establish a level of credibility for member firms with stakeholders (regulators, lenders, insurers and consumers). Surprisingly, and in my opinion disappointingly, there was no mention of estate agents.

The CQS is based on two main elements: 'quality' and 'probity'. Probity, a word not often used, well not by me anyway, apparently means being morally and ethically above reproach and having integrity.'

Firms that are CQS accredited are obliged to follow an agreed protocol to ensure that conveyancing solicitors do not, amongst other things, waste time arguing about unnecessary clauses in contracts. Furthermore, that they do not raise a long list of additional enquiries not really needed, and do not overly debate which copy planning permissions or building regulation approvals they need sight of. In short, it is meant to streamline the conveyancing process, rendering it more efficient.

A handful of lenders (including HSBC and Santander) now insist that law firms on their conveyancing panels are CQS accredited.

It would be interesting to know if many estate agents have heard about CQS, if they are aware which firms are accredited, and whether or not the CQS has improved the conveyancing process

Following on from the success (or otherwise) of the CQS, the Law Society is currently promising to develop an online conveyancing portal to streamline the conveyancing process and improve communication between solicitors, conveyancers, clients and stakeholders including Land Registry and HMRC. Again, no mention of estate agents.

If all goes according to plan, the development of the portal should begin later this year and, in addition to having a deal room' which should make drafting and agreeing the contents of certain documents and exchanging contracts easier, it may also have a chain view which all parties (including estate agents) would be able to access.

It would be interesting to know if estate agents would welcome a Law Society led conveyancing portal. Especially if it helps reduce the number of times they have to contact a solicitor in order to obtain a conveyancing update. What would estate agents particularly like to see a conveyancing portal actually provide or deliver, if anything