Yesterday I spent two hours in Dunfermline talking to Kyle Peddie, the CEO of Your Conveyancer, about the Scottish conveyancing process versus the conveyancing process in England and Wales.
As it turns out, two hours isn't really long enough to fully understand the niceties of Scottish property law. I therefore apologise now for any obvious errors or omissions.
The main difference is that in Scotland when you make and accept an offer it is legally binding and, almost at the outset a completion date is agreed. There are very few chains of any real significance because people will move out or bridge and buy later.
Most buyers, before they make an offer, will have their mortgage agreed in principle at least and sellers, if selling publicly or via an estate agent, will have had a Home Report prepared which potential buyers can access early on. The Home Report contains a survey, an EPC, a valuation and a completed property questionnaire.
Both the seller's conveyancer and the buyer's conveyancer are instructed earlier in the process and it is the seller's conveyancer who carries out the searches, but not as many as the buyer's conveyancer would down south. They don't do Chancel, flooding and rarely environmental.
The $64,000.00 question is, is this process better than ours The simple answer is sometimes, but not always and it is not as good as it once was partly because of the delays now getting mortgage offers. If you don't get your offer, in time to complete on the date agreed at the outset, then a breach occurs. This now means that some completions take place in a very uncontrolled and rushed day or two - which is stressful for all concerned.
So have I come away with the answer to all our problems Unfortunately, no I haven't.
What next Do we continue as is and all suffer to the usual stresses and disappointments we have for many years, or do we sit round a table and try to come up with something better Other countries apparently do have better systems and maybe Norway should be my next trip
It is early days, but moves are afoot to commence discussions in order to seek to identify in practical detailed terms what needs to be done to improve property transactions. As the discussions progress it will, in my view, be vital to engage with all parties, conveyancers, agents, lenders, surveyors, brokers, the public and others. I will, via this column, keep you updated. If you want to contact me directly on this, please do on rh@boldgroup.co.uk.
It now seems like a good time to comment on the new, proposed Law Society conveyancing portal, Veyo, because if it does what we are told it will do, it could be the answer to the above problems and we will all be wasting our time.
There was an article about Veyo in this very magazine on Wednesday. Without going into detail, unfortunately the roll out so far has been far from perfect and very few stakeholders' really know what is going on.
Despite a public facing marketing campaign starting at Twickenham last week, there is no pricing, no T & Cs and no demonstrations of the system available. Those who are likely to support Veyo want answers and I put together a comprehensive list of 24 questions, but for some reason Veyo won't or can't answer them. With a promised spring launch only weeks away, that seems very odd. Did last Wednesday's Veyo update fill you with hope or dread
*Rob Hailstone is Founder of the Bold Legal Group
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