Reform of leasehold tenure is ‘years, not months away’ despite the passing of the Freehold and Leasehold Reform Act in the days before the end of the Conservative government earlier this year, delegates at this year’s Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) conference were told by Alice Bradley, co-CEO of The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE).
Bradley’s comments, in a session outlining the work of LEASE and their forthcoming role in influencing legislative change, went on to say no timescales have been put in place but that the government would take its time to consider what steps might be taken to fulfil its election promise to reform the leasehold system, before bringing forward secondary legislation.
In a packed programme the conference, again delivered in Derby, brought over 200 attendees together for a day of information sharing and learning.
In a session on the use of digital signatures, Harbinder Gill of HMLR acknowledged there is still work to be done on encouraging and facilitating the use of electronic signatures across the profession. A poll of attendees suggested 25% are currently using digital signatures in some form. By comparison to wet signatures HMLR are clear; electronic signatures present a more secure proposition. Who actually witnesses wet signatures in person? Certainly not solicitors who are requesting signed documents to be returned by post. And electronic signatures provide a clear audit process. There must also be the regulatory framework in place to enable the use of electronic signatures and in August HMLR released updated guidance on Practice Guide 82 electronic signatures accepted by HM Land Registry; a document over 70% of attendees said they hadn’t read.
So the challenge, continued Gill, is to whet the conveyancing professions’ appetite and convince them of the benefit, while creating the right regulatory framework for their use. With the current ‘Conveyancer Certified Electronic Signature’ a halfway house for the time being; albeit she warned, the correct submission process should be followed to avoid requisitions.
“We are receiving documents with electronic signatures, but the profession needs to ensure they are lodging all the relevant evidence with these documents. If these aren’t lodged together, it could lead to a requisition.”
The development of digital-first journeys was evident in a presentation from Nationwide’s Rob Stevens who shared a short update form lender. Digital journeys improve the speed of offer by an average of two weeks said Stevens, but warned the dangers of of not having a person to speak to means lenders have a responsibility to make sure clients remain vigilant of the risks associated with their property.
On the subject of hotly debated Material and up-front information Rightmove’s David Cox presented the property portal’s work to consolidate the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT) Material Information guidance, and its own consumer research on what information people want to see on the porta’s property listings. Following the release of Parts A,B and C of the guidance, estate agents are now required to provide more information to would be purchaser’s up front.
Part A was announced last year and includes council tax band or rate, property price or rent and tenure information (for sales). Part B is information that should be covered for all properties – such as the type of property, the building materials used, the number of rooms and information about utilities and parking; and Part C is information that only needs to be established if the property is affected by the issue – such as flood risk or restrictive covenants. Part C is widely considered to be much more the domain of the conveyancing professions and provides an opportunity to work with the agent to secure legal instruction earlier in the process; ideally, says the guidance, at the point of listing.
Cox explained while the portal now complied with the requirements from the point of view of having all the information fields available, work was ongoing to collect this information from the various customer relationship management systems used by estate agents to populate the listings. He said around 64% of Rightmove listings now had some material information presented to consumers but acknowledged it varied in quality and detail. Around 90% now have the tenure listed; 3/4 have council tax information; meanwhile only around half (53%) of leasehold listings present service charge information.
Concluding the conference, Chair of SLC Simon Law implored the delegates, and wider conveyancing community, to come together in a similar spirit of cooperation fostered during the difficult days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is, he said, a sad state of affairs when reviewing the ‘nit-picking and infighting’ so often seen on social media, and presents a poor picture to the outside world. Issuing a rallying call, Law said the profession should collaborate and work better together.
