Conveyancers providing upfront information are averaging 12 weeks to complete a transaction, a stakeholder group helping the government improve the home buying and selling process has revealed.
Discussing upfront information on day two of National Conveyancing Week, the Conveyancing Association’s director of delivery Beth Rudolf, who is also co-chair of the Home Buying and Selling Group (HBSG), told practitioners that transaction times are currently averaging 22 weeks. Transaction times during the era of home information packs was 12 weeks.
The national average fall-through rate is 34%. ‘That’s huge when you think about how much time and money is wasted on these transactions that do not go through,’ Rudolf said.
HBSG appears to have taken the thinking behind home information packs (HIPs), scrapped in 2010 shortly after their introduction by the Labour government, to design a digital questionnaire – called the ‘Buying and Selling Property Information’ (BASPI) – as the ‘one source of truth’.
BASPI can populate the PropertyMark Property Information questionnaire and the Law Society’s TA6 property information form, which are currently completed by the seller after lawyers are instructed. BASPI also contains a summary of information needed by a valuer or surveyor.
Rudolf said upfront information would improve operational efficiency, reduce liability, cut the number of additional enquiries and post-valuation queries and reduce stress, before proceeding to ‘bust some myths’ about upfront information.
On the myth that sellers will be reluctant to pay, Rudolf highlighted Conveyancing Association research that found 98% of people thought upfront information was a good idea and 62% would be happy to pay over £300 for that upfront information.
Rudolf added: ‘We have tested this in the HIP regime. We had no problem with sellers paying for home information packs. Scotland brought in home reports which are much more expensive than what we’re talking about but there has been no reduction in the number of transactions completed before, during and after delivery of home reports comparable to England and Wales.’
On the myth that BASPI will not make a difference to timescales or fall-throughs, Rudolf said those using upfront information now were averaging transaction times of 12 weeks.
Scotland’s home report experience has led to a 60% reduction in fall-throughs and timescales four weeks less than England and Wales.
Yesterday’s presentation included a quote from Simon Wilkinson, senior partner of The Wilkinson Partnership, an estate agency, who said: ‘We have been providing upfront information over the last three years, for well over 1,000 properties. Without question, it has added transparency, flagged up any issues very early on and then had them resolved. Thus, it has speeded up sales and made the firm and my staff more professional.’
