An industry group charged with trying to make house buying simpler and quicker says it’s made a breakthrough on ‘upfront’ information given to purchasers.
The Home Buying and Selling Group describes itself as an informal group of industry representatives working to find better ways of conducting transactions for consumers; its findings and suggestions feed into the long-running activities of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to make the process faster, more transparent and less prone to fall-throughs.
Now the Home Buying and Selling Group says it’s come up with what it calls the “one source of truth” about every property that would go on sale - a definitive list of information to be provided upfront to would-be buyers.
The would be a so-called Buying and Selling Property Information form, or BASPI.
The BASPI would be completed at the point of marketing a property, could be written ahead of time and - according to the Home Buying and Selling Group - would be accessible to all parties to avoid duplication.
Industry consultant Kate Faulkner, who chairs the Home Buying and Selling Group, says: “This is a major step forward in trying to make life better for those moving home. Far too often sales fall through after an offer is accepted due to a lack of information provided to the buyer and part of the reason for moving home taking 20 weeks is that we don’t collate enough information upfront.
“The BASPI together with the pledge recommending sellers instruct legal companies on day one of marketing can go a long way to improving the home moving process for consumers and also for the daily lives of those in the industry.”
The BASPI is split into two sections: Section A covering Material Facts required under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, and Section B covering the remainder of the Conveyancing Due Diligence.
The Home Buying and Selling Group says it’s now agreed what goes in the BASPI and says it’s now up to PropTech and CRM companies to take the next step - that is, “add the required questions into their technology which will allow home movers to fill in all the necessary information, removing the current duplication of information in the current forms.”
Once completed, the BASPI will provide the material facts disclosure to potential buyers before an offer is made to give them all the required upfront information about a property.
The plan is for it to also be accessible to lenders, and can be sent to all parties with the memorandum of sale together with the conveyancing due diligence section, and made available to the valuer prior to them making their valuation.
Faulkner’s team says the practical uses for the BASPI include allowing agents to complete their material facts disclosure, solicitors to complete the TA6 Property Information form, lenders to complete their lending policy checks, and valuers to complete their pre-valuation template to prevent additional enquiries and post-valuation queries.
The House Buying and Selling Group says it’s now calling on all stakeholders within the property purchase process to work with PropTech and CRM system companies to ensure they add the BASPI capabilities to their systems so the right questions are asked, the right data is collected and it is fully digitised.
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This is good news. I am all for making the home moving process more transparent and getting everyone connected with the transaction to work together for mutual benefit.
In addition to all of this good work conducted on the BASPI, property sellers should also purchase the property searches upfront, which they can do online and directly with an organisation called Property Searches Direct. It does what it says on the tin!
Vendors can buy all of the Local Authority, Water & Drainage, Environmental searches etc, and hand them over or sell them on to the buyer once found. Therefore saving even more time and speeding the transaction towards a swifter exchange of contracts.
Surely, the BASPI and Searches bought upfront is better for all committed buyers and sellers?
Thank you for your kind words. I was about to say the same thing but you saved me the effort. We'd love to see the BAPSI form and make it immediately available to Home Movers that we come in contact with.
Hoping to buddy up with some tech pals to make their visibility more accessible too. No good having all the information if it is not easily accessible. We are hoping to be able to store searches in the same environment where they have been paid for by the vendor who is marketing the property as Searches Included (ie, not expecting a refund).
One angle that seems to have been overlooked in these discussions, is how is this information going to be dislayed to potential buyers. One methord availiable today is the PIP Vault. A digital dataroom, opened by the estate agent, but where the agent, seller and their conveyancer can post relevant property documents that can be shared with potential buyers.
Some say data is the new gold, but it is what you do with it that matters.
another method is the Gazeal system of a simple link that is sent out to any interested parties and secure and easily accessible. We already use this and it works a treat containing all the TA forms, sellers documents, title docs, and its FREE
A massive 15 page 'spreadsheet' that is suggesting estate agents ask sellers 'has there been anyone murdered in your house? Once all this information is collected, it needs to be transferred onto a TA6/TA7 so why not just complete the TA6/7 upfront? More delay being created by 'working groups' totally detached from the front line of house moving. There is plenty of providers of TA forms which are the only forms used by the Law Society Transaction Protocol. I am all for seller disclosure and 'one point of truth' but 3 years to create a spreadsheet that itself cannot be used in a sale is classic!!
With respect, you do not have the full picture Steven; it is not a spreadsheet and I can assure you that the participants in the working group concerned are not totally detached from the front line of house moving. BASPI will take a while to be adopted and bed in, but it will be worth it in the end.
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