Last month we reported on our ‘Contract Ready’ pilot that we are running with estate agents Ryder & Dutton who have implemented the scheme across their 24 branches in the North of England.
This month we are thrilled to share that no less than 3 cases have already completed through Minerva’s portal a completion occurred 8 weeks after a property was listed for sale and five weeks from memorandum.
How does it work?
Using Minerva’s innovative portal platform across all branches, the data from a seller is only inputted once and is shared between both lawyer and estate agent. This includes facial recognition ID verification and the property information questionnaire.. The lawyer then orders the searches and the estate agent starts to market the property as “contract ready”.
This is the key element – ordering the searches sooner than in a traditional conveyancing transaction removes many of the delays now being experienced at local authorities.
Reporting on the first transaction to have gone through this system, the team at Ryder & Dutton are thrilled to share that they have been a part of a conveyancing transaction that has taken only 2 months. Certainly something unheard of at the moment.
With conveyancers taking to LinkedIn to discuss how to deal with mental health in these unprecedented times for property law practitioners, Minerva’s solution has proved that it really can reduce transactions times, and stress, for all.
Transaction Timeline:
Being ‘contract ready’ the answer?
Over the summer, software supplier, Law Firm Services Ltd (LFS), launched its pioneering initiative in conjunction with the Ryder & Dutton estate agency group;
“After 18 months of planning and development, it is fantastic to see that what we knew we could deliver for all parties is happening.
Our Minerva platform is the catalyst for a whole new conveyancing experience. I am thrilled that this pilot has borne out all of our hopes. We are really chuffed that Ryder & Dutton have achieved such a fantastic result only weeks into the pilot. This really proves that life can be made easier for all parties and the overall result be a faster transaction.’
Richard Powell, managing director at Ryder and Dutton estate agency and member of the Home Buying and Selling Group (HBSG) is thrilled with such a great result in a short space of time too:
“We have determined over the last 12 months to do what we can to shorten the time it takes to progress house sales through to completion. Covid 19 delayed the start of our new contract ready service until July and has actually exacerbated the delays that we were seeing last year. For example searches in some of our areas are now taking up to seven weeks, so if we have these done when the house is put on the market, that’s a huge time saving for all concerned.
We are delighted to report that last week 3 of our contract ready cases instructed in July & August, actually completed. This is a sure fire sign that the system is working with conveyancers instructed when the house goes on the market and contract papers prepared in advance. The Minerva platform has been the key to bringing all this together.
As we move toward a stamp duty deadline this will have a significant impact, with only those sellers who are contract ready in a position to complete their transactions before the end of March.
We would highly recommend all agents and law firms to work together in this way. It removes delays, reduces fall throughs and is less stressful for all concerned”
says Powell.
Speed up your time to exchange and have your sellers be ‘contract-ready’ Book a demo of Minerva with the team here.
Enjoy lively debate at our next panel discussion on 5th November Conveyancing in Crisis?
