The Conveyancing Association (CA) has revealed its core policy priorities for 2020 and beyond.

The CA affirms its commitment to improve the conveyancing process for consumers and conveyancers alike with four priority areas:

1. Leasehold reform: the CA believes the issues with leasehold need resolution at the political level and it will hold itself out as the source of pragmatic solutions to deliver practical reform, working with the freeholder community to reach a satisfactory solution which could involve more transparent fee levels and better standards of service on both sides.
2. Rentcharges: the CA believes that the rise in the registration of estate rentcharges and the draconian remedies which attach to them, whether demanded or not, will lead to more opportunity for the abuse of home owners in the wrong hands; the CA will work with the developer and rentcharge owner community to exclude the disproportionate remedies and provide a reasonable means of redress where genuine arrears do exist and might impact the effective maintenance of shared amenities.
3. Home Buying and Selling Group (HBSG): The CA will continue to play a significant role in its affairs, especially through the Conveyancing Task Force (CTF) which it chairs until summer 2020, and through the CA’s involvement with the HBSG’s working parties on upfront information, leasehold and reservation agreements.
4. Digital Identity: the CA sees better digital delivery as good for business and will contribute to the increasing public debate on how to verify identity digitally.

The CA is also preparing a ‘Conveyancing Roadmap’ document which it will unveil at its Annual Conference in February and will outline what it believes the future of digital conveyancing should look like.

Paul Smee (pictured), non-executive chair of the Conveyancing Association, said: “Regardless of which party or parties form the next government, our sector is likely to be subject to considerable political attention.

“So, we have carved out four policy priorities for us as an Association, where we believe real change can be delivered and where we can build on our past successes to secure a quicker, cheaper and less stressful home-moving process.

“We will be discussing all of these, and much more, at our Annual Conference which takes place on the 6^th February 2020 at the new ICC in South Wales. We hope many stakeholders across the entire industry will be able to join us there.”