People often complain about the slow, stressful, complicated job of moving home. As far as enjoyment is concerned, it seems to be up there with death, divorce and paying one's tax.
Does something need to be done And if so, what
There are a number of IT/technical initiatives underway that I am aware of:
Hoowla
Veyo
In-Touch
Zen Exchange
There may well be more. Are these the answer or should we be looking at changing the actual procedure and/or the law involved, or perhaps both
I suppose that we need to firstly identify the problem areas. Here are some suggestions, as they say, in no particular order:
Slow and complicated mortgage applications
Buyer and sellers being able to change their minds at the last minute
Slow and uncommunicative conveyancers
Unnecessarily adversarial conveyancers
Absent conveyancers
Too much red tape and bureaucracy put on conveyancers
Too many checks required; AML, ID etc
Slow searches
Too many pre-exchange enquiries
Chain reliance
Length of chain and detail rarely available
No pre-sale legal packs available
Agents putting together deals that don't stack up
Overly complicated legal process, Chancel checks, Planning and Building Regulations checks, Fensa etc
Conveyancing being a personal process rather than a set process i.e. what one conveyancer says is correct, another disagrees
Overly complicated, and individual requirements from lenders
There must be more
For my sins, and weather permitting, I am off to Scotland in two weeks' time to see how the process works north of the border. In the meantime, your views and comments would be most appreciated.
Time to get it off your chests!
*Rob Hailstone is Founder of the Bold Legal Group
rh@boldgroup.co.uk www.boldgroup.co.uk
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