The Conveyancing Association (CA) has published the agenda for its ‘Modernising Conveyancing’ conference, which will take place on Thursday 1 December at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea.

The conference programme has been designed to debate a wide range of issues impacting the conveyancing process, with the intention of seeking solutions and guidance in areas such as cyber-crime, leasehold reform and management, as well as conveyancing regulation initiatives and insurance.

The Annual Conference and Dinner is headline sponsored by Infotrack and is free of charge to CA members, while non-members can also attend both the conference and dinner by booking tickets through the CA conference website. Access to the conference is for conveyancers only and a select number of invited industry people.

Delivering the keynote address will be consumer champion, Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town, a former member of the National Consumer Council, vice chair of the Financial Services Consumer Panel and chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel. She recently tabled questions on behalf of the CA to the government on how improvements could be made to the home buying process.

The rest of the Conference will be split into panel debates with industry experts taking part in topical discussions. There will be five sessions throughout the day, each one answering specific questions, such as:

• What exactly is wrong with the home buying process? An opportunity to analyse the problems and what can be done to improve them.
• How can the various stakeholders in the process work better together to deliver a collaborative home moving experience? Who is best placed to provide upfront information – estate agent, conveyancer or client?
• Leasehold is a nightmare – what can we do about it? How to cut down on the delays and the cost?
• What can be done to reduce the number of abortive transactions and reduce the cost to clients of wasted fees?
• Are we going ‘Back to the future’? Will we be considering ‘skinny HIPs’ and the provision of more upfront information in order to improve the process?

Eddie Goldsmith, chairman of The Conveyancing Association, said: “This is definitely a pivotal moment for the conveyancing industry and the home purchase process itself and we at the CA believe industry stakeholders have a unique opportunity to reshape both for the better. In this sense the timing of our annual conference and dinner could not be better, and we have developed an agenda which focuses on a range of issues within the process, and invited participants to talk through the challenges and help us offer up solutions.

“The conference sessions will feed into the White Paper we are currently writing which will deliver the CA’s view on how we get to a much better process for all conveyancing stakeholders.

“We are delighted to be welcoming Baroness Hayter as our keynote speaker, who we anticipate will deliver an enlightening address and help us understand specifically how we develop the process and our services for consumers. On top of this we have five further panel sessions which will go into considerable detail on a vast range of topics and issues, including discussions on a number of CA campaigns such as leasehold, lender engagement and cyber-crime.

“The CA believes this is a must-attend event for all serious conveyancers and with the dinner afterwards providing an opportunity to network and socialise with key contacts and clients, it promises to be a highly informative and productive day for all delegates.”