Conveyancing Month!

 

 

  CONTENTS

 The UK’s first monthly on-line journal dedicated to conveyancers!

 

The Law Society, in association with global IT giant MDA, has developed an online HIP solution, which, in theory at least, will enable conveyancing solicitors in England and Wales to successfully compete in the HIPs market.

 

If a Solicitor led solution was ever going to work, then it would need to address two particular issues; firstly, the thorny question of “up-front” costs to the home seller; and second, it would have to be a complete solution, and so include a HCR (Home Condition Report) as well as the legal element. On paper at least,  the Law Society solution does just that, and a good deal more besides.

 

From mandatory implementation on 1 June 2007, and subject to a successful technical implementation, the Law Society HIP will provide a number of benefits for both solicitors and their clients.

 

Solicitor benefits

 

• No “upfront” disbursements. The solicitor will not have to pay anything at all for the HIP, and the seller will be able to defer payment (see post).

• Web-based service. According to the Law Society publicity hand out, solicitors wishing to use the service will “need only a PC and broadband Internet connection”. Setting aside the lack of any reference to scanners, and whilst we think this is naive, it is technically correct.

• Easy access to Home Inspectors to order Home Condition Report. This is going to be vital if Solicitors are going to produce a complete HIP.

• Solicitor or estate agent nominated Home Inspector can be added as a preferred supplier. This will certainly be necessary if the Law Society/MDA encounter difficulty in recruiting sufficient HI’s to support the service.

• Electronic NLIS searches can be automatically integrated. Here the practitioner can choose to use any NLIS channel, and not just MDA’s channel, Transaction OnLine.

• Law Society brand can be combined with firm’s brand.

• Electronically archived by MDA for 15 years. Presumably, this will enable solicitors to retrieve useful information if they are subsequently instructed on a new sale.

• HCRs and Energy Performance Assessments registered with government-approved databanks.

• Meets trading standards and FSA regulatory compliance for both solicitor and estate agent, and could prove to be a good selling point.

 

Client benefits

 

• Prepared by experts with all the required and authorised documents. Will the service only be accessible by Solicitors? This has yet to be confirmed. 

• Delivered overnight to the estate agent or seller in a variety of formats. The phrase “Delivered overnight” is meaningless, but presumably implies speed.

• Competitively priced.

• Easily transferable between agents. Technically, this is likely to be the case with all HIP offerings. The real problems will be contractual or involve copyright issues.

• Seller deferred payment options. The seller will not have to pay for the HIP until exchange, and will be given up to 11 months in all before payment is finally required.

• Warranty provided. Details of this warranty have yet to be published.

• Trusted by the buyer’s solicitor. This remains to be seen!

•Seamless service if conveyancing is offered with the HIP. This will be essential if, as anticipated, the majority of HIPs will be produced on a “no sale, no fee” basis.

 

Good as it looks, there are still some important questions that need to be answered before the prudent practitioner will give the Law Society solution his or her unconditional approval.

1.Will the solution be made exclusively available to solicitors? If not, then solicitors will lose the advantage of having the “best solution”.

2. Will there be enough Home inspectors to go round, and will the Law Society/MDA be able to recruit them? As we already know, there are not enough surveyors to undertake the task of preparing the required number of HCR’s, and many of them are already contracted to other potential HIPs providers - Countrywide, for instance.

3. Will MDA accept responsibility for enforcing payment by defaulting homeowners, who, for whatever reason, object to paying for the HIP? And if so, upon what terms?

4. Marketing and case tracking still remain serious issues. As we mentioned in last month’s issue, there is little point in having any kind of solution - good bad or indifferent - if no-one instructs you to deploy it!

 

Staying informed

 

Solicitors can help to keep themselves informed by subscribing to a free, regular electronic update published by the Law Society by emailing hips@lawsociety.org.uk.

 

In addition, The Law Society will be running open trials on a regional basis beginning in June, following an initial controlled pilot of the product in spring 2006.

 

All firms from sole practitioners to larger conveyancing practices will be able to take part. The trials will give solicitors the opportunity to test and market the service to local estate agents and clients using a variety of trial HIPs. For information about the regional roll-out, training and free registration, email:hips@lawsociety.org.uk

 

 

The Law Society’s HIPs

solution will be hard to beat - but questions still remain.

TechnoFile...