The Conveyancing Association has identified eight areas for improvement that members believe could improve the home moving experience, and one could see the return of a form of the Home Information Pack.

The trade body issued what it called a White Paper at the end of last year outlining areas of focus to create a more positive home moving experience for all.

Among the recommendations, the Association’s strategic plan, titled ‘Building the framework for the future’, backs an e-home report, and says it will first develop the forms and would then conduct a pilot with member firms.

It is more likely to take the form of a digital report rather than the old-style HIPs, which were last year ruled out by the Association’s director of delivery Beth Rudolf.

She said at the time: “We do not support the return of costly and cumbersome Home Information Packs. What we do support is the preparation of information for the sale of property in an electronic home report.

“This has been proven to reduce the timescales to exchange of contracts in England and Wales by estate agents and conveyancers who already work together in this way, as well as from research into other jurisdictions which shows that this is pivotal to the reduction of time and stress in the home-moving process.”

The report also calls for reforms to leaseholds, a centralised point for ID verification and for buyers and sellers to be able to follow the progress of the transaction.

The full eight recommendations are:
1. Enhanced ID verification: helping develop a reliable product that reduces verification instances but increases certainty.

2. E-Home reports – upfront provision of information: providing a comprehensive collection of information upfront prior to the property being marketed.

3. Reservation agreements: providing a standardised agreement to reduce uncertainty and create home mover choice.

4. Completion certainty: enabling completion monies to be sent the day before completion to make moving home easier for clients on the day of completion.

5. Leasehold reform: reducing the costs and delays associated with leasehold transactions, plus helping develop a redress scheme and support fair terms in new leases.

6. Lending process improvements: creating the ability for buyers to obtain a reliable decision-in-principle, plus reduce post-offer queries and improve communication with lenders.

7. Better search data provision: reducing costs and delays, plus creating a version of CON 29 relevant for lenders with optional borrower questions, and digitise relevant data.

8. A secure property portal: helping create a secure communications platform including a ‘Property Log Book’ for every property.

Rudolf said: “In a number of key areas, progress has already been made.

“I’m thinking particularly of leasehold reform where, thanks to the concerted efforts of stakeholders, the Government has committed to a review of leasehold tenure, and where we have already begun the process of developing greater consumer understanding via our consumer guide on leasehold administration fees which provides consumers with the information necessary to ask the right questions before viewing a property.

“There is clearly further work to be done, not least providing a form of redress, but in terms of this work stream we are already some way down the track.

“For others, there is clearly a lot more to be done, but this strategic plan provides an overall guide for us to follow and focuses us on the job ahead.”