The future of conveyancing…NOW!
Dominic Cullis, MD of Easy Convey, discusses the need for law
firms to implement e-conveyancing sooner rather than
later and highlights some key elements that need to be considered
When Easy Convey was founded in 2000, I remember being
extremely proud of our motto that came to me while driving home late one
evening. ‘The future of conveyancing now’ was not
only a genuine belief in that what we were doing was pioneering but I also believed
that the day would come when the conveyancing process
would almost exclusively rely on electronic communication. Seven years on from
that advertiser’s apparition, I find myself witnessing the impending
introduction of Home Information Packs (HIP’s), a
paradigm shift in the way that law firms are increasingly doing business (or
need to do business), and I can honestly say that this day is now upon us.
There is no debate about the implementation of e-conveyancing; it is going to happen, needs to happen and
needs to be implemented now! Practically speaking, in order to change any
working practice you need a great deal of time to implement new procedures.
There are always many elements to master in new systems as well as the need to
retrain staff, react to initial teething problems and not to forget the period
of transition that always needs to be considered when switching from one
process to the next. All these factors can be alleviated, or their effect
greatly reduced at least, if e-conveyancing software
programmes are installed in preparation rather than in response. I believe the
old adage is to be ‘proactive’ rather than ‘reactive’ and this is certainly the
case with e-conveyancing.
The aforementioned paradigm shift in the way that law firms
are doing business is in keeping with the need for e-conveyancing
and is very much a transfer from the traditional client, lawyer relationship to
that of a business-to-business, lawyer, estate agent
relationship. Law firms will need to communicate electronically with all
parties within the home buying and selling transaction and therefore it is
absolutely key that firms build relationships with the property professionals;
something again that takes time and needs to start now. Estate Agents, law
firms, lenders, home inspectors etc. all need to be on board and communicating
effectively.
In the future when the Land Registry’s e-conveyancing
service is in operation, it will not be possible to be a property lawyer
operating in a traditional office environment. It is vital that all firms
master electronic service delivery, but admittedly it is easy to get lost
amongst the constant usage of the letter ‘e’ in front of traditional practices
such as conveyancing. It is of the utmost importance
that traditional methods of communication are maintained within law firms, as
after all, people buy from people and I know that I certainly communicate in
different ways with my grandmother than I do my sister. In my opinion, the best
conveyancing practice will be a local firm, with local
knowledge, utilising the fact that they have a lawyer on hand for personal
client contact, who is additionally able to
communicate effectively electronically and is proficient at doing so. All
clients are of course different and in the case of younger and working clients,
who rely more on email and mobile phones for communication, software needs to
be able to integrate with mobile phone networks to send SMS messages and
Microsoft Outlook or Exchange to send emails.
It is also worth noting that in the case of email, the
integration needs to be two way. Email should be both able to be generated
inside the case management software and able to receive an email that, if it
contains an attachment, is able to extract the data and store it directly in
the matter history.
The importance of electronic data transfer cannot be
understated due to the time critical nature of the ensuing HIP’s
and subsequent changes to the home buying process. Under the current system,
completion is not the end of the sales transaction as over the succeeding weeks
the registration process takes place and the lawyer deals with any requisitions
from the Land Registry. However, the Land Registry is currently creating a
system whereby after the implementation of the electronic conveyancing
service, registration will coincide with completion and thus arguably increase
the speed and efficiency of the process.
Furthermore the laws governing Home Information Packs
outline that the pack is required to be prepared within ten days, meaning that
all searches, home condition reports, energy condition reports, feedback from
clients regarding the property etc. is highly time critical. This highlights
not only the immense benefit of being able to communicate effectively
electronically but also the importance that building relationships with
property professionals and the need to get these markers in place now.
E-conveyancing is all about
information, transparency of exchange and communication to all parties
involved. One of the main benefits associated with e-conveyancing
is the ability to always know and be informed of any potential problems that
lie in the chain. As a result of the chain matrix there is complete
transparency throughout. All the key stages of the sales process form part of
the Land Registry’s e-conveyancing chain matrix and
these are:
·
Contract issued /
Contract received and validated
·
Searches requested
·
Enquiries raised
·
Satisfactory searches
received
·
Enquiries completed
satisfactorily
·
Finance arranged
·
Contracts released /
exchanged
I would suggest however, that any software implemented in a
law firm should ideally interface with the Land Registry chain matrix whereby a
step completed in the workflow of the law firm’s case management software would
automatically update the Land Registry’s chain matrix and thus save the firm a
great deal of time and data entry – another key aspect of e-conveyancing
as all data should initially be keyed once by the agent and then used wherever
required.
One of the main reasons I understand why firms are delaying
their implementation of e-conveyancing is that they
believe its future is ambiguous. One way to alleviate this concern is to find a
software supplier that is committed to providing a product that is able to
evolve to meet the ever-changing demands of e-conveyancing.
After all, it is of course in the interest of the supplier to meet legislative
changes, technological changes and indeed the evolving needs of the client.
I believe that the ideal solution for a law firm
implementing e-conveyancing would be to have elements
of the solution installed and operated from the firm’s offices. This maintains
higher degrees of confidentiality and security over web-based alternatives and
a greatly increased speed of communication. Only certain information is
required outside of the law firm and this can be accessed though an online case
tracking service and seamless integration with complementary related services
provided by the other property professionals.
These last two points demonstrate the importance of choosing
the right e-conveyancing application. With the
impending transfer into electronic conveyancing, many
software manufacturers are developing conveyancing
strands to their programmes which may not provide your firm with all the
necessary elements that an efficient e-conveyancing
programme needs. The following is a broad checklist to follow when considering
an e-conveyancing solution provider. The service
needs to:
·
Automatically produce
an accurate fee estimate within seconds
·
Have complete
integration with all service providers that make up e-conveyancing
(NLIS, HM Revenue & Customs, Home Inspector, Estate Agent, Lender, Client)
·
Have letter, document
and form creation using information from the database
·
Be able to merge
database information where appropriate on the official forms
·
Have a suite of tailorable letters, forms and documents
·
Be able to edit
letters, documents and workflows to mirror current style of practice
·
Have the ability for
e-submission of SDLT to HM Revenue & Customs
·
Have the ability to
send SMS text messages from the Matter
·
Be able to integrate
email with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange
The overlying message in the case of e-conveyancing is that law firms need to implement the
solution now and build relationships with all parties involved within the house
buying and selling process. The future for this industry only points to more
developments in technology and a greater emphasis being placed on
communication. An example of this can be seen through OneMove™. OneMove™ is a
pioneering firm which serves as the coordinator for all parties involved in the
sale process, making sure the customer is kept fully up to date with their move
and ensuring that the Estate Agent, Solicitor, even the removal company, are
all contacted and dealt with, swiftly and accurately by a personal move
consultant. OneMove™ also provides its clients with a BlackBerry
mobile phone so they are always available to check the status of their sales
and easily contactable via email and SMS. With such an example in mind and seeing that conveyancing is your entire business, can you afford not to
implement an e-conveyancing system? The future of conveyancing is in the present.