One of the most frustrating things about buying a home (and, correspondingly, selling one) is the length of time it takes from having an offer accepted to handing over the keys on completion day.
In fact, it's not an illusion. In recent years, the length of time it takes from offer to completion has significantly increased. While conveyancing typically takes 8 to 12 weeks, many transactions — particularly those involving a chain — are now regularly running to three months or beyond.
The finger-wagging seems to point firmly at the conveyancing process. However, this is unfair, as there are speed bumps everywhere throughout the home-buying business. Certainly, there are points in the conveyancing process that could do with improvement, and Homeward Legal firmly believes in continuous improvement. Th
Why conveyancing takes longer than it used to
Part of the issue for conveyancers is the increased number of tasks and the length of time it takes to complete the additional legislation required to perform the very necessary anti-money-laundering checks. Are you who you say you are? Are you the legal owner (or representative) of the home you are planning on selling? Have you got a verifiable source of funds for the purchase?
And so on.
The Conveyancing Task Force
There is in existence a Conveyancing Task Force (CTF), comprised of representatives from key organisations in the conveyancing sector: The Law Society, The Society of Licensed Conveyancers, The Conveyancing Association, CILEx and the Bold Legal Group, among others.
Working together, the group has identified a number of areas that need to be addressed in tandem with improvements in the conveyancing process:
- Delays with mortgage lenders and issues with loan applications
- Price renegotiation following a survey, and disputes over remedying problems found
- For leasehold properties, issues arising with management companies
- Property chains that are inherently unstable or very long
- Excessive caseloads in the conveyancing and property market
- The increasing complexity of legal and regulatory requirements
One of the most commonly cited issues from customers of conveyancing organisations is that paper-chasing and the use of outdated management systems are key to understanding why the home-buying process takes so long.
Work needs to continue to look at the processes across the whole spectrum of the home-buying process, rather than solely pointing at conveyancing as the primary cause of delays.
What Homeward Legal does differently
Homeward Legal will be following progress with interest and reporting on it. In the meantime, if you have any questions about your transaction, your solicitor is on hand to help you understand the latest progress and any issues that have arisen.
When you choose a solicitor with Homeward Legal, you get a focused solicitor who keeps your transaction at the centre of what they do, using the latest case management systems and streamlined processes to get you to completion as quickly as possible. Our conveyancers start work as soon as you agree to your quotation, and our fixed-fee promise means what you are quoted is what you pay, with no surprises. Should any unforeseen items arise, your solicitor will discuss these and their cost as they come up.
We also operate a no completion, no fee promise: if the purchase or sale does not go through to completion, no legal fees are charged.
Call us on0800 022 4427 to get your quote started, or use our quick online quote generator to get an instant figure.