Frew: Conveyancers and estate agents need to work in partnership
Conveyancers should be able to rely on digital IDs checked by estate agents and vice versa, the head of the Home Buying and Selling Group’s upfront information sub-group has said.
Glynis Frew, who last week stood down as chief executive of Hunters Estate Agents, also said that licensing estate agents would make “the biggest difference of all”, a decision which the government kept delaying.
“Conveyancers and estate agents need to work in partnership,” she said. “It’s about upfront information, but it’s also about doing things differently and sellers instructing conveyancers on day one.”
The Home Buying and Selling Group is a coalition of all parts of the property world and is the lead industry grouping consulted by government.
Speaking on a Bold Legal Group podcast, Ms Frew said that, if sellers instructed a conveyancer on or before their property entered the market, they were more likely to know what they needed for a quick sale.
“A digital ID could be taken once, upfront, either by the conveyancer or the estate agent, and then it would be there for both of them to use.”
Conveyancers were seen as “duty-bound” on the issue of ID checks, but so were estate agents, she observed.
Ms Frew said “more and more” demands were being put on conveyancers and estate agents, but fees “did not necessarily correspond” with the extra work involved.
“If estate agents were licensed, it would make the biggest difference of all, but the government keep putting it back and putting it back.
“The problem that the industry has is that the bigger estate agents will pay money to be compliant, but other agents will probably not be compliant and the public will not get the same service.
“The public deserves to know if someone dealing with what is usually their greatest asset has been properly trained and properly licensed.”
The third version of the Buying and Selling Property Information (BASPI) form, developed by Ms Frew’s sub-group, was launched last week.
The BASPI aims to provide a ‘single source of truth’ containing all the information required about a property when it is put on the market for sale.
The new version adds requirements such as the home’s unique property reference number, information about shared ownership, leasehold details, insulation and smart home systems information.
Information on whether the property has a digital property logbook is also required.
The launch follows a National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agent Teams project on improving the availability of upfront information in the conveyancing process.
Beth Rudolf, director of delivery at the Conveyancing Association, who has been leading the work on the BASPI, said the latest version was “another step forward”, and it would continue to be reviewed regularly “to ensure it continues to meet the needs of everyone involved in a property transaction”.
James Munro, senior manager of the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Teams, added: “This new form will make it even easier for agents to provide the required material information when marketing a property, which will lead to fewer unnecessary enquiries, swifter sales and increased consumer confidence in the industry.”
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