The Conveyancing Association, the leading trade body in the conveyancing industry, restarted its real live event calendar at RSA House, London on the 9th September,
The CA Policy and Strategy board met in the morning and agreed on the need for a concerted agenda to drive productive change in the way that we convey property in the UK, facilitating the digital future and with greater emphasis on solving those practical issues encountered by CA members on a day to day basis.
CA Strategy will focus on:
- The practical deployment of the upfront provision of information and how this can be achieved without too much disruption for conveyancers or the property market.
- A review of conveyancing process to allow for new ways of working, embracing digital and technological advances and the working practices that have come into play during the pandemic.
- To continue the CA’s support of the initiatives with HMLR to resolve issues that have plagued conveyancers for many years and digitise the registration process.
- A taskforce working with mortgage lenders to formulate practical answers to issues that often lead to difficulties prior to exchange of contracts.
New Legal Members JS Law, Kiteleys Solicitors, Nelsons Solicitors, Pro Conveyancing, Muve and Beyond Conveyancing and Affiliate Members, Move Reports and SDLT Compass were welcomed.
The Conveyancing Association are now at 80 Legal Members, who together undertake approximately 30% or all residential transactions and 70% of remortgage transactions in the UK.
Operations Director, Lloyd Davies hosted the Revolutionary Conveyancing seminar which allowed Legal Members to explore and share the initiatives they had adopted during covid. The topics included staff training and retention; paper free initiatives deployed during lock downs with interesting and innovative methodology coming to light during the discussions.
The afternoon seminar was an evaluation of the issues surrounding the recent CLC indemnity insurance renewal which had been a difficult process. Stephen Ward from the CLC and Edward Donne from Howden insurance brokers explained that the number of insurers has diminished over recent years, leading to a dearth of quotes, increased premiums and last minute insurance risk. Proposals to avoid a reoccurrence of these events were discussed to support members and protect their clients.
It was highlighted that, whilst seller impersonation fraud is reducing, the focus of fraudsters has now diversified away from the high value properties and conveyancers were recommended to review their approach to transactions of all values to ensure that they do not get caught out.
The final seminar of the day covered the potential benefits of producing upfront information in the home moving process with Beth Rudolf chairing an expert panel made up of Scott Bozinis from InfoTrack, Victoria Mortimer from Knights, David Bridge from Kiteleys Solicitors and Harvey Harding from PM Law. The audience participated in an interactive session where the causes of issues and the solutions to speed up the conveyancing process were discussed.
The next event will be in the Dual offices located in Central London on the 21st of October 2021. Potential new members are welcome to come along to sample what the CA has to offer and to enjoy or hospitality. If you are interested in finding our more about the CA please contact Jess Smith – secretariat@conveyancingassociation.org.uk.
Conveyancing Association Chair, Nicky Heathcote commented: “It was a lovely event and it was wonderful to meet everyone in person. Thank you to the Secretariat for organising such an excellent event once again. Thank you also to those presenting, participating and sharing ideas and best practice, which is what the CA is all about. We look forward to a busy autumn in defining conveyancing best practice leading up to the CA Conference in December.”
The event was followed by a spectacular river cruise and party in conjunction with longstanding CA affiliate members and event partners Groundsure, who celebrated their 20th anniversary about the Silver Sturgeon with over 400 invitees, made up of key conveyancing industry stakeholders and personalities.
