Giving homebuyers more peace of mind (From Your Local Guardian)

Giving homebuyers more peace of mind

3:57pm Wednesday 15th February 2012

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Buying a home is generally considered to be one of life’s most stressful events – and with spring just around the corner, many people are now facing this very prospect.

The best part of a move is undoubtedly choosing a new home. The worst often seems to be the legal hoops we have to jump through to get the keys to our new door.

A conveyancing solicitor, or a licensed conveyancer who is not required to be a solicitor, are key to the smooth- running of the whole process, as they manage the legal transfer of the property on behalf of the buyer. They must ensure, among many other things, that the person selling the property has the right to sell it, and that nothing can obstruct the sale, or the mortgage. They also commission searches of records to ensure nothing might prevent its resale in future.

The Law Society launched the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) last year to establish a recognised quality standard for solicitors conducting residential conveyancing, and so far 1,800 branches of law practices in England and Wales have signed up to it. Robert Brigham, a director with Sutton solicitors’ Copley Clark, said his company believed the Law Society’s new conveyancing kitemark would give further reassurance to buyers, sellers and lenders.

“I think the Conveyancing Quality Scheme gives buyers and sellers more belief and reassurance in the process, knowing their solicitors have been subject to such rigourous checks,” said Mr Brigham.

“The accreditation process takes a long time – everyone on the team has been CRB checked, credit-checked and even our accounts checked... which is why lenders clearly view it as a good thing.”

One of the drivers of the new scheme was to provide a means of limiting the opportunity for fraud.

As lenders tighten up their own procedures, they are increasingly demanding that conveyancing solicitors on their lending panels have the CQS accreditation.

While Mr Brigham says his firm is behind the new scheme, some solicitors have argued against the need for it. Most already have considerable conveyancing experience and feel the Law Society already has many other means of checking standards. However the Law Society believes the CQS will give prospective house- buyers greater peace of mind when selecting a conveyancing solicitor.

“We wanted to make it easier for anyone buying a home, which is a major, life-changing purchase, to identify law firms which have high standards in this type of work,” said John Wotton, president of the Law Society.

You don’t have to be a solicitor to be a conveyancer. The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) accredits professional firms who undertake the work on behalf of buyers. Recently it welcomed a new Quality Assured scheme announced by the Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC), which also aims to maintain high professional standards within the profession.

The scheme, which is open to all CLC licence holders, requires firms to register each new transaction with the SLC. Information about the transaction will be shared with lenders at all key stages of the conveyancing process, as well as with the CLC. The aim is to enhance transparency across the process.

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