The Conveyancing Association respond to publication of DCLG’s Improving the home buying and selling process: call for evidence.

Eddie Goldsmith, chairman of the Conveyancing Association and Partner in GWLegal, said: “The CA published its Strategic Plan at the start of the year and it is particularly gratifying to see the Association’s work mentioned within the Call for Evidence and to see so many of our work streams, aims and ambitions covered, particularly around providing greater certainty for buyers and
sellers, ensuring far better upfront provision of information, and our push for digital solutions in order to improve the conveyancing process.

“We have been saying for some time that the conveyancing industry is at a pivotal point in its history and the publication of this Call for Evidence is a further step forward as the Government acknowledges the home buying and selling process is not fit for purpose. The CA is fully committed to working towards achieving a process which is fit for 21st Century consumer demands
and our Director of Delivery, Beth Rudolf, met several times with the DCLG prior to this publication to discuss her research into other jurisdictions and conclusions drawn in creating the Conveyancing White Paper this time last year. We will, of course, continue to have a close dialogue with the team there throughout the consultation period and beyond.

“At present we are working through a number of internal pilots with CA member firms on areas which will provide solutions to some of the issues outlined in the Call for Evidence. These include our Digital Home Report which will provide a comprehensive collection of information upfront to the potential purchaser, a reservation agreement which will be legally binding and tackles the issue of aborted transactions and gazumping, and our Completion Code which enables completion money to be sent the day before completion, creating certainty in terms of the time of move and reducing wasted resources when it comes to completion delays.

“We’ll share the results of these pilots and the empirical evidence from all our Strategic Plan initiatives in order to support our response to the Call for Evidence. Our members are fully supportive of this work and have been vital in developing these solutions – we believe the Call for Evidence process will result in a revolution in conveyancing and the CA will be at the forefront in helping deliver it.

“This is a vindication of the objectives of the Association and we are now ready to move on to the exciting challenges ahead better informed and forearmed. Our Annual Conference, which takes place on the 7th December at Stamford Bridge, will include a presentation from the DCLG and will give us an opportunity to discuss the Call for Evidence, our response to it, and the long-term future of the conveyancing process.”