The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Levelling Up whitepaper released on 2nd February provided insight into the multi-million pound investment plan for Britain to move the centre of wealth away from London and the South-East to be shared more equally across the UK.
Hidden amongst its 332 pages was a paragraph which may have far-reaching consequences for the property market.
The home buying and selling process which can be expensive, time consuming and stressful will be improved. Around a third of all housing transactions fall through, costing people hundreds of millions of pounds each year. The UK Government and the industry will work together to ensure the critical material information buyers need to know – like tenure type, lease length and any service charges – are available digitally wherever possible from trusted and authenticated sources, and provided only once. If necessary, the UK Government will legislate.
For readers of Today’s Conveyancer, up front information is a regular topic of discussion.
The Home Buying and Selling Group has championed up front information for a number of years, introducing Buying and Selling Property Information (BASPI) in 2021 to collate a dataset designed to be the ‘one source of truth’ when it comes to upfront information about a property. It is anticipated to be completed at the point of marketing a property, can be pre-populated by Authority data, and it is planned that the data be made accessible to all stakeholders cutting down on the need for duplication of tasks and information collation within the process.
In March 2021 The Law Society launched its own TA6 Part 1 up front information capture pilot to encourage home movers to complete a series of questions to inform the production of a shortened version of the TA6 which in turn would enable estate agents to inform potential buyers at a much earlier stage in the process about some of the crucial information that could influence any purchasing decision.
And there are a myriad of technology platforms all designed to encourage the capturing of information up front from Apps which populate the TA6 protocol forms through to the development of property logbooks.
And for estate agents, up front information is mandated under the “Consumer protection: Unfair Trading Regulations 2008” which superseded the repealed “Properties Misdescriptions Act” in 2013. This shifted the emphasis away from caveat emptor for estate agents requiring them instead to establish material information which could affect an average consumer’s transactional decision.
While the definition of material information remains highly subjective, the acid test of compliance with the CPRs is whether the customer has been treated fairly.
Launched in 2007 and unceremoniously ditched in 2010, the broad consensus is that Home Information Packs were a good idea badly executed. It does look very much as though we’re about to see some sort of revisionist return. The most intriguing part of the statement in the whitepaper is that the government will not rely on market forces to make this happen… despite indicating it will work with the industry to make this happen, the threat of legislating “if necessary” should see action sooner rather than later.
8 Responses
Hooray
In 1970 I worked on the first Which? (and UK consumer focused ) report into conveyancing. The need for upfront information was easily identified.
But what information?
Despite lawyers and quasi-lawyers having had the benefit of trade restrictions since 1804 they have failed to develop a taxonomy by reference to which a buyer can judge whether she or he has the right information in the right place at the right time
Put somebody else onto it
John. You are so right. From one who is working to be able to gather the information for the sale, what is really needed is an agreed list of data. I today’s world it would be even better if it was and agreed data set. but onr thing at a time.
Thanks Timothy
A major problem has always been vested intellect
When I first worked in High Street conveyancing I practiced upfront information by getting replies to standard enquiries on first contact with a selling client and sending this to a buyer’s solicitor similarly
Many snotty responses resulted
Reserved matters should be transferred from conveyancers to transaction managers who have a more positive approach.
What responses did you get? Would be interesting to know what objections people had to answering enquiries earlier in the process.
Thanks Mark and Tom
Mainly the cottage industry thinking that every property was unique and I was showing my ignorance with “one size fits all”. Others felt that it was a professional discourtesy to impose new procedures on others.
Before hitting the high street I had worked for Which? on its first conveyancing report and had helpful experience of practitioner reaction. My favourite was one who objected to conveyancing being dealt with in a magazine. Particularly one that applied similar investigation processes to ladies’ hosiery. I was later assured that an item requesting reader experience of another legal service appeared by pure coincidence close to one about the sartorial joke of the time. Paper underpants for men
Humour and consumerism have always gone together eg That’s Life Are any conveyancing reformers looking for a comedian? Red nose for Beth?
What responses did you get? Would be interesting to know what objections people had to answering enquiries earlier in the process.
The property sector across the board largely agrees that more upfront information is better for the home buying and selling process, and that it supports the necessary consumer protection requirements.
The whole procedure when selling a property needs to be standardised to support a smoother transaction. In the first instance, further thought needs to go into what the buyer might want to know about the property beyond the legal requirements – everything from the broadband provider, to local schools information, planning history and everything in between. Once the detail is agreed, there needs to be further thought on how the forms can be presented and shared with all parties from the outset. All those involved in a transaction should be informed at every possible touchpoint, so they are fully armed with all necessary information to enable informed decision making.
I believe the use of UPRNs is a good place to start – if the UPRN for each property was expanded to incorporate all of its activities and characteristics, these can easily be transported into a necessary legal or “sellers” document. Whilst, of course, there will be anomalies due to the very nature of property which doesn’t always fit into a mould, a standardised and pre-populated document including all relevant property information would make the initial process less arduous for the seller, more consumer friendly and ultimately reduce delays.
Matt
Agree except for assumption that forms will be sent on to clients. They deserve better
I downsized to a flat and was given a copy of the lease. It was atrociously produced by someone who had no idea of how to use standard word processing to present important information to clients
I also bought a microwave. This came with a booklet combining safety, user and other information in plain English, 15 other languages and pictures for those who could not read. The conveyancing sector should hang its head in shame. Since 1804 it has had the benefit of unfair trade practices (aka “Reserved Matters”). But unlike other sectors it has yet to offer the UK a quid pro quo such as owner friendly property information and may be drinking at the last chance saloon
Forms need improving but only to get information turned to data and held on machines ready to be extracted and used to provide every home with a comprehensive and accessible guide.
Conversion of property information to data is key to improved conveyancing.
Those interested in the process should follow the Open Data Institute https://theodi.org/article/geospatial-data-infrastructure-report/
Some years ago the institute was approached by a journalist who needed to know how many leasehold properties there were in UK. This was unknown but ODI set him up as the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership to do the counting. LKP still works from ODI offices where it now runs the secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold reform chaired by the MPs Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative), Justin Madders (Labour) and Sir Ed Davey (LibDem). Converting property information to data is at the heart of conveyancing reform