A major conveyancing industry trade body says it wants individual legal practices to support government proposals to reform house buying.
The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) says the proposals – released last month – come at just the right time.
The main measures involve an upfront information pack for buyers, greater digitisation of paperwork, and binding agreements introduced relatively early into the purchase process.
Fewer than half of the property professionals who took part in the CLC’s latest confidence tracker survey said they were confident in current market stability – 45% down from 54% asked the same question earlier this year.
Consumer confidence was also down, from 36% to 21% for buyers and from 24% to 15% for sellers.
Just 17% of the 87 respondents thought the speed and efficiency of the conveyancing process was improving and the average transaction time was still static at between three and four months.
Over a third (36%) also admitted they had been holding off investing in new technologies or redesigning processes until the detail of the reforms had been announced.
A statement from the body says: “The CLC is now urging its practices to throw their support behind the changes.”
The call comes after some individual legal experts spoke against the reform ideas, which they believe will not address commonly accepted problems such as slow transaction times and a high level of transaction fall-throughs.
One dissenting conveyancer told Estate Agent Today: “Conveyancers have long been expected to absorb every new burden. We have done so because the public relies on us. However, there comes a point when a profession must say enough is enough.”
But the CLC is unrepentant, saying the reforms will be transformative, reducing delays and the unacceptably high level of transactions falling through.
The CLC continues: “This will be achieved by the introduction of legally binding agreements, supported by sales packs containing all the information prospective buyers may need upfront.
“Buyers and sellers can therefore make informed decisions and have confidence much earlier in the process that the transaction will complete.”
Stephen Ward, head of strategy and external relations at the CLC, comments: “The CLC has a long history of championing innovation and modernisation, and we will be working hard to ensure these reforms take hold.
“This is a significant and exciting step forward in improving the whole process, not just for consumers but also everyone involved in home buying and selling, so we urge the property market to continue its collaboration to make this vision a reality.”
And he adds: “I firmly believe we will look back on this moment as a major turning point in transforming a broken system into one in which consumers and professionals alike will have much greater clarity, certainty and confidence.”
The CLC, together with the Open Property Data Association, is currently working on the pilot of a ‘trust framework’ under which information can be shared securely and with confidence in accuracy and provenance between the different parties in a transaction.
