Conveyancing Association issue response to DCLG ‘Call for Evidence’
The Conveyancing Association issued its formal response to the DCLG’s ‘Call for Evidence’ on ‘Improving the home buying and selling process’. The CA’s response contains many of the ideas and ongoing work streams from our own 10-point Strategic Plan, outlined in our White Paper, aimed at delivering tangible improvements to the home buying process. The White Paper was published at the start of the end of 2016 and our response to the Governments Call for Evidence details findings and evidence from ongoing pilots taking place through our Membership, home mover surveys and roundtable discussions designed to establish the impact and delivery of these proposals.
Beth Rudolf, Director of Delivery at the Conveyancing Association, commented:
“Our focus in producing this response to the ‘Call for Evidence’ has been all about ‘thinking big’ and not being constrained by the home buying process as it currently exists, or by what has happened in the past. We feel this is a real opportunity to secure a process that works not just now but in the future and our response offers up advice and tangible solutions that we believe, if introduced, will secure a much smoother process but also significantly cut down on the 30% of transactions that currently fail each year. Failures which cost the consumer many millions of pounds.
“This response is all about delivering increased certainty for all parties and this is achievable if we improve the use of digital services and seek to use new and existing technology in order to cut down on duplication, to improve consumer understanding, to reduce wasted time, to guard against fraud, to cut out unnecessary costs and delays, the list goes on. Technology can help change the process for the better and it’s important that the conveyancing industry engages with it, and adapts to it, in order to ensure it is a real positive for our member firms.
“At our recent Annual Conference, the DCLG itself highlighted some of its initial thinking on the ‘Call for Evidence’ and the initial responses it has received. We are clearly on the same page in a number of areas and believe this response not only sets the scene for what is achievable, but provides real evidence via the work we have already carried out with members, particularly when it comes to the upfront provision of information, ID checks, reservation agreements, completion certainty, and others.
“We believe this is a crucial point in the evolution of the home buying process – indeed we might say this is the start of the revolution – and it’s therefore vitally important that all stakeholders make their voice heard, either via using our response or by making sure they send in theirs. The results of this ‘Call for Evidence’ will determine how the process evolves and we are looking forward to working with the DCLG, and all other stakeholders, to ensure we get a process fit for purpose now and in the future.”