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Press Release

For Immediate Release

24th October 2005

 

Easy Convey to take the pain out of Home Information Packs (HIPs) for solicitors, estate agents, and sellers

 

Conveyancing Administration Software Application (CASA) will allow solictors to produce Home Information Packs quickly and easily

 

Easy Convey Ltd (www.easyconvey.com), a leading developer of electronic conveyancing products and services, has today announced that its Conveyancing Administration Software Application (CASA) can now be used to produce Home Information Packs for estate agents and their sellers, quickly and easily. 

 

Home Information Packs (HIPs), the bundles of information intended to make buying a house a swifter and more transparent process, will be trialed from mid-2006, in preparation for a full launch in 2007.  The initiative comes as a response to the number of house sales that collapse before completion because buyers, after having their offers accepted, discover off-putting facts about the properties they wanted to buy.

 

"Some solicitors have been sceptical about HIPs, claiming that the packs add to, instead of reducing, the red tape and costs involved in a property sale, but this does not need to be the case," says Tim Roebuck, Business Development Manager, Easy Convey Ltd. "Home Information Packs should be seen as an opportunity for the legal profession, not a  drain on resources.  Estate agents are going to need help to complete these HIPs, and their local law firm will be the obvious first port of call."

 

 

HIPs will be compiled by property owners and their estate agent, so that potential buyers can peruse the details before they make an offer.  The packs will be required by law, and a property won’t be able to go on to the market until all the necessary facts and figures have been compiled.

 

Many estate agents have expressed concern over the introduction of HIPs, since, under the terms of Part V of the Housing Act 2004, if an estate agent fails to make an HIP available within 14 days of commencing the marketing a property, they could be served with a fixed price penalty of £200.  Worse still, repeated failure could result in their entire business being closed down.

 

Already, a number of independent third-party companies are offering to produce Home Information Packs for estate agencies, but thanks to CASA, all of this work can be handled in-house by solicitors, with ease.  As such, estate agents need look no further than their local law firm for help with completing the HIPs.

The CASA software, which sits at the heart of the Easy Convey electronic conveyancing solution, has been specifically designed to be both intuitive and 'user friendly' for law firms that offer conveyancing.  The current version has been enhanced with a Home Information Pack generator in the form of a "HIP Wizard".

 

CASA is already used within many law firms to assist with all areas of conveyancing administration.  It generates letters and completes forms and other documents via automated workflows, and diarises activities to schedule follow-ups or actions to take place throughout the transaction.  By using the HIP Wizard, solicitors can now supply estate agents with a quality HIP in just a few days, complete with the legal commentary that will form an essential part of the pack.

 

The software also provides full integration with all of the National Land Information System (NLIS) channels (including Searchflow, TM, and Transaction Online), so that solicitors using CASA can access all of these services from within the application.

 

Also, following an agreement with Easy Convey and Adobe, CASA is able to output directly to PDF files.  Home Information Packs can then be uploaded directly to a secure web site, sent as an e-mail attachment, burned to a CD or DVD, or simply printed.

 

"Home Information Packs will be a business-critical activity for estate agents when they market a property, and professional agents are well aware that only lawyers can provide real certainty in a property transaction," Roebuck adds.  "By using CASA to produce Home Information Packs, law firms can give estate agents the confidence of knowing that the information these reports contain is not only accurate, but presented to the exact letter of the law, as well."

 

<<ends>>

 

 

About Easy Convey Ltd

EasyConvey was established in April 2000 to market a range of electronic conveyancing products and services, all of which were developed in-house.  By using this technology, conveyance lawyers can enjoy 50 percent more completions, without increasing staff levels. 

 

EasyConvey's unique Conveyancing Administration Software Application (CASA) is at the heart of the easyconvey.com electronic conveyancing software, and can significantly reduce conveyancing time for experts working within the property market. For more information please visit www.easyconvey.com

 

Press Contact:                                      Company Contact       

Andrew Ball / Chaz Brooks                                 Tim Roebuck

Tel: 01483 537 890                                             Tel: 01483 419 025

email: andrewb@chazb.com                               email: tim@easyconvey.com

WebL  www.chazb.com                                      Web:  www.easyconvey.com

 

 

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