Conveyancing Association hosts lender roundtable to tackle delays to home-buying process

Last month the Conveyancing Association (CA) met with leading lenders to discuss their common goals when it comes to streamlining the home-buying process.
A small working group of CA Management Committee Members hosted the roundtable event, which took place in London on Thursday 23 July. They were joined by representatives of Nationwide, Santander, TSB and Lloyds – collectively accounting for around 70% of the lender community here in the UK.
Themes discussed included regulation and guidance – and, in particular, what can be done to ensure additional consistency is delivered through this, with a view to ultimately reducing delays to homes sales and purchases.
It was agreed that the group should meet on a quarterly basis, to ensure that discussions around what further improvements can be made to streamline the home-buying process are ongoing.
Eddie Goldsmith, Chairman of the Conveyancing Association, said: “The event was extremely successful and we are making great progress. This is clearly something lenders are interested in engaging with us on and we are really looking forward to our continued work together as well as reaching out to other lenders who would like to be involved.
“We believe that we can make a real difference to the home-buying process – making this a better experience for all involved. For example, something as simple as ensuring the full names of borrowers are included on mortgage instructions and information could reduce referrals by 25%, which slow the process down. This is significant and we want to identify other areas where small changes make a big difference.”
Andrew Baddeley-Chappell, Head of Mortgage Strategy & Policy, Nationwide, said: “As one of the largest mortgage lenders in the UK, it was important that Nationwide contributed towards the discussion at last week’s event. The conveyancing process is a key step in the home-buying journey and anything that can be done to make it work better is welcome. By working together more closely, we hope that positive change can be achieved quickly and effectively, leading to the best possible service to our shared customers.”