Conveyancers sign industry charter to speed up property process

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Hale: Much-needed initiative

Instructing a conveyancer when a property is listed is number one of an eight-point plan issued by a group of 23 leading organisations to speed up the home-buying process.

Conveyancing behemoths Movera and Simplify, along with other well-known conveyancers – AConveyancing, Evolve Law and Holden Smith – have joined the likes of estate agents Connells, lenders Lloyds and Nationwide, brokers such as the Mortgage Advice Bureau and others involved in the conveyancing world, such as Landmark Information Group, Lender Exchange and LMS.

‘Project 28: A Charter’, which wants others in the sector to sign up, says the ultimate aim is “to streamline the transaction process to 28 days from sale agreed to exchange”.

According to Landmark’s latest figures, the average time between sale agreed to exchange for purchases in 2024 was 109 days – a slight improvement from 115 days in 2023, but still 19% longer than in 2019 (92 days), and 65% longer than in 2007 (66 days).

The charter sets out eight industry commitments that those signed up to it will implement operationally:

1. Early instruction of seller-side conveyancer – ensuring legal work begins at listing.
2. Provision of relevant upfront information and condition reports
3. Ensuring data collection and availability
4. Ensuring trusted data
5. Access to a secure, interoperable data repository
6. Early commissioning of leasehold packs
7. A recognisable marque to indicate best practice
8. A quality fee for quality service

Many of these ideas have been talked about for a long time but making them happen on a widespread and consistent basis has been the challenge to date.

Given the fragmented nature of the market, the general sentiment has been that government mandate, such as on upfront information, is required to bring about real change – but there has been no sign of this happening.

Landmark instigated the initiative and chief executive Simon Brown said this was “a pivotal moment for the property industry – a united response to a system that has, for too long, been too siloed, let down consumers and slowed economic progress”.

Nick Hale, chief executive of Movera said: “This industry-wide initiative is much needed, to help speed up house buying and selling and make the process smoother, more secure and more transparent.

“With the average transaction currently taking more than 100 days to complete, it’s clear that the UK property market needs significant reform and we all need to work together to achieve the proposed 28-day transaction target.”