Property sector representatives join forces to improve home-buying process

Individuals from a range of organisations across the property sector have joined forces to create the Home Buying and Selling Group.

Setting out to improve the buying and selling process for consumers, the informal group is made up of legal property professionals, mortgage lenders and letting agents, as well as representatives from various organisations including the Society of Licensed Conveyancers, HM Land Registry, the Conveyancing Association, Bold Legal Group and the Property Ombudsman.

Chaired by Kate Faulkner of Propertychecklists.co.uk and hosted by TwentyCi, the first meeting involved members sharing their experiences of problems faced by consumers when buying a home.  Attendees also put forward suggestions for easing the situation, with government help where necessary. Matt Prior, from the Ministry of Housing Communities & Local Government, was at the meeting to hear first-hand the wide-ranging debate.

Members of the group are confident that if solutions are developed involving all of the industry from the start, huge differences could be made to consumers’ buying and selling experience.

During a group discussion, one of the biggest issues facing home-buyers was found to be uncertainty, around both timescales and whether the sale will fall through. Research is now being carried out by the group into the feasibility of creating certainty through binding offers or reservations, as well as ways to provide consumers with better data to help their decision-making process.

To facilitate change, smaller expert teams have been set up to investigate providing more information before sale, creating more certainty at offer stage, improving education for both consumers and professionals as well as ways to solve leasehold issues.

Beth Rudolf, Director of Delivery at the Conveyancing Association (CA) comments:

“While undoubtedly legislation will be required to improve the home-moving process, our industry can have a massive impact by working together on initiatives to pave the way.  The CA is delighted to be working with other stakeholders to develop and test proposals which will have a positive impact on the process.  It’s as much about what doesn’t work as what does so the Government have a clear steer on what will make a genuine difference. By engaging as a group we can break down silos and identify unintended consequences early, meaning the outcome for the consumer will be much better than if one sector attempts to solve these problems on their own. So much of the solution is common sense, consumer-focused processing but often one sector will struggle to see the wood for the trees. By working together we can help to deliver what we know the consumer wants – certainty, transparency and a positive home-moving experience.”

The Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) comments:

“The SLC is very pleased to be part of the recently formed Home Buying and Selling Group. Bringing together key stakeholders, the aim is to formulate ways to improve the consumer experience by providing greater speed and transparency to the process as well as giving greater certainty earlier in the transaction. In turn, this will hopefully reduce both stress and costs. The Society is hopeful that the Government is receptive to industry led solutions that may involve statutory intervention if necessary to make them effective. In particular, the Society will advocate radical and much-needed reform of Leasehold Title which routinely causes unnecessary delays to transactions, additional costs and as a result,  transaction failure.

“The Society is fully committed to playing an active and meaningful role in the work of the Group, and will be leading on the leasehold issues workstream.”