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4 months on from the transparency rules coming into effect on 6th December 2018, we caught up with Richard Williams, Policy Associate from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) at LegalEx 2019 to hear the latest. 

The new digital badge helps firms differentiate themselves from unregulated service providers

Did you know? 40% of firms regulated by the SRA are already displaying the new digital badge to differentiate themselves from unregulated legal services providers. For those embracing the transparency rules and the badge, ahead of the changes being mandatory from 25th November 2019, they are already benefitting from:

• Managing client cost expectations from day one and reducing the risk of price-related complaints further into the transaction. 

• Market differentiation and attracting new clients, as more people use legal services and shop around. 

• Sending a clear message of adhering to market standards and regulatory protections, helping them to win new business and give their clients peace of mind – as 80% of consumers said they were more likely to go with a firm with a badge on their website. 

Firms are falling short on complaints and VAT on disbursements

However, there are still some challenges to overcome. Whilst many firms are already displaying pricing information, Richard noted some are falling down on providing details around disbursements and VAT, as well as clearly displaying complaints procedure information, including:

• The firm’s complaints handling process

• Details about how to complain to the SRA

• Information about how to complain to the Legal Ombudsman

You can find more information about adding complaints procedure information to your website here.  

What happens next? 

As the official deadline of 25th November looms closer, the SRA will continue to keep a close eye on the uptake of the new rules. They will be carrying out web sweeps to see how information is displayed – including an impending random sweep of 500 firms. Could your firm be one of them?

The SRA will also be speaking with firms to see how they are adapting to the changes, as well as engaging with consumers to raise awareness of what they should now expect to see on a firm’s website. This extends to following up on any consumer complaints and discussing with the relevant firm where they might need to make some improvements.  

The SRA will also be finalising their new Digital Register, expected to be launched in late November in line with the official deadline, bringing firm information together into one consumer-friendly place, where they will be able to validate their choices. Richard noted that this will not be a price comparison tool.  

Why were the transparency rules created?

The transparency rules were created to give the general public better access to legal services and information, after a survey of over 5,000 people revealed that only 15% were able to find the price information they needed.

The new rules were also driven by research into consumer behaviour and a growing appetite to shop around for legal services, as it was found that 71% of people spend more than an hour researching their options and 66% consider more than one provider.

Why is lack of information such a big issue to address? 

In the absence of pricing information, individuals assume that legal services are unaffordable – with a perception that they are 25% more expensive than they actually are. It’s a serious barrier to people getting the legal help they need and can also have a knock-on effect on the volume of work coming into the industry. Fortunately, the new rules are already bringing positive change.

Where can I find more information?

If you would like to find out more about being compliant with the new rules, you can watch Richard Williams’ presentation – recorded live at LegalEx – on the SRA YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLOxK9B_lYY 

More information and guidance can also be found on the dedicated ‘transparency’ section of the SRA website: https://sra.org.uk/transparency/ 

Terrafirma have updated their CON29M with several new features to offer a new level of due diligence and efficiency, as they continue to change the way in which property professionals across the UK approach coal mining activity.

Available now on tmconvey, the updates include: 

• The inclusion of the UserKey, as currently used in Terrafirma’s Ground Report. The UserKey clearly highlights who within the transaction needs to take action to make it easier for the conveyancer to know what information needs to be reported to which party. 

• Addition of a new ‘At a Glance’ expert opinion

• Loss of value insurance has increased to £100,000 – covering any subsequent changes in Coal Authority data.

• Upfront inclusion of the mine entry interpretive report. Terrafirma have used new data technologies to apply a new risk model to each of the 173,000 recorded coal mine entries, analysing the zone of influence and the potential impact of a shaft on the use and value of a Site, at no extra cost. This enhancement brings a number of benefits for the conveyancer, purchaser and lender alike.

Terrafirma CEO Tom Backhouse comments:

‘Terrafirma have worked tirelessly for nearly five years to change the way in which property professionals view ground risk. It has always been our ambition to better support due diligence in former mining areas and to more effectively cover and advise both solicitors and their clients. After extensive market research and a monumental effort from our team of experts, we are exceptionally proud to present this new and enhanced official CON29M.’

Want to find out more?

You can see a sample report here. 

You can also register for these free webinars from Terrafirma. 

Mine Entries - time to lose the 20m buffer

Tuesday 9th April 2019 : 11am – 11.30am

Click here to register

Navigating the professional opinion minefield

Tuesday 16th April 2019 : 11am – 11.30am

Click here to register

If you have any questions or queries, please contact your Account Manager, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk 

We’re adding a new listed buildings data layer to tmconvey. 

Available from 5th April 2019, you’ll soon be able to give property developer clients much-needed context about their intended renovation projects – without needing to visit multiple websites. 

As with our recently added highways information, you’ll be able to turn on the data layer and see listed buildings overlaid on your existing map –  for Grade 1, Grade 2* and Grade 2 across England. As of 2nd May, this will be extended to listed buildings in Scotland and Wales too.

You can then find out more about a listed building of interest by clicking on it to generate a pop-up, which will give you the address and the grade, as well as provide a hyperlink that will take you direct to the relevant page on Historic England. This will enable you to read further information about the restrictions in place, if you wish. 

How do I turn on this new data layer?

If you would like to turn on this new data layer, your TM administrator will need to update your company preference by following the below steps:

1. Go to ‘System settings’ on the tmconvey Services Dashboard

2. Select ‘System defaults’

3. Select ‘View’

4. Select ‘Mapping defaults’ 

5. If you scroll down, you will see a new section called ‘Map Data Layers’ – and various options to choose from including the new ‘listed buildings’.  

6. Once you have settled on your choice, click ‘Save’.

What other changes have we made to our mapping?

The addition of ‘listed buildings’ data is the latest in a series of mapping enhancements. 

Here’s a quick summary of the last few months, just in case you missed anything.

Highways data added to tmconvey mapping 

NEW Map Data Layers section gives conveyancing teams even more control over their visible data layers

NEW realistic colour scheme creates clearer mapping boundaries

Map Search data now includes CCOD and OCOD

Exciting news… Even more Map Search updates to save you even more time!

Map Search enhancements make even more time for you

Stay tuned for more updates COMING SOON!

If you have any questions or queries, please contact your Account Manager, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk 

From 5th April 2019, ‘Mine entry interpretative’ and ‘Subsidence Claims 50m buffer’ reports from the Coal Authority will be available to order via tmconvey under ‘Coal Mining’ – if a Coal Authority CON29M has already been ordered and returned.

This will replace the current email ordering process. 

You can see sample reports here: 

• Mine entry interpretative

• Subsidence Claims 50m buffer

If you have any questions, please contact our Helpdesk on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk

As you may already be aware, some Local Authorities are merging from 1st April 2019.

However, we’d like to take this opportunity to reassure you that we are working closely with the relevant Local Authorities to make sure all of our processes behind the scenes continue to run smoothly, so you can continue to place your orders in the same way. 

If you’d like to see a summary of the changes, you can do so in the table below:

If you have any questions or queries, please contact your Account Manager, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk 

It’s been almost a month since Louisa Crook, Branch Partner at William H Brown in Wakefield started using sales progression and communication tool mio. Here she shares how it’s already making day-to-day sales progression quicker and easier.

1. I know exactly what’s top priority when I come into work each morning 

“It’s great that all of my tasks are highlighted on the dashboard as soon as I log in, as I can see exactly what I need to do, dive straight in and get it sorted. 

It’s particularly helpful, as I don’t need to think about what to do first or waste time reviewing files of information, especially when I’m so busy managing my branches as well.” 

2. The next steps in the sales progression process are clear for everyone 

“Before using mio, we relied on our own diary management to understand what we needed to do next to drive each sale to completion. This not only made it quite time-consuming to keep check of what needed to happen and when, but it also made sales progression challenging for less experienced members of the team – as they mainly relied on a paper manual of milestones to guide them through the process. 

Now, it’s so straightforward. The tasks, chain view and milestones help everyone to understand where each property is in the sales progression process. It’s clear to see it’s been designed by Estate Agents for Estate Agents.”

3. Emailing other estate agents and solicitors is simple – with just one click

“With mio, you have everything you need at your fingertips – including handy extra features to make life easier. One of my favourites is the ability to click on the name of a solicitor or other estate agent in the chain and open up an email in Outlook. I can get typing straight away and there’s no faffing around with finding the right email address, or worrying that I’ve mistyped their name.”

4. It’s quick and easy to find and open my current cases 

“I love it when things are simple and easy to use. The dashboard itself is particularly helpful, as it always shows my most recent cases, so I can dip into them quickly, progress the property transaction and update my notes.” 

5. There’s no barriers to sharing information or doing holiday handovers

“We used to keep a mix of handwritten notes and electronic records, which made it tricky to handover to colleagues during annual leave. Particularly as the handwritten notes weren’t always easy to read. As there were no time stamps on any of our notes, it could also be a challenge to know when a file was last updated and what needed to happen next. 

With mio, it’s great that everyone can see everything they need all in one place – from tasks and time-stamped notes, to milestone updates – so it’s simple and straightforward for one of my colleagues to just pick up where I left off.” 

6. Notes are time-stamped, easy to add – and can be as long as you like

“With our previous system, we had some issues with adding notes, as tapping the return key would trigger an auto save (instead of skipping to the next line) and we’d often end up with lots of bitty notes against a property. 

However, with mio, our notes can be as long as we like. As it’s so intuitive, we also don’t have to worry about any issues with the return key. We just click save when we’re done. It’s so much easier to add and review the information we need and keep each property up to date.”

7. It’s easier for us to share information between branches 

“All of our branches used to use different systems and processes to progress a sale, so if I needed to go to another branch, I would need to spend time understanding their way of working – before I could make any progress. mio has changed all that. By using the same system and milestones across all of our branches, it’s so much easier to switch between them. 

Across our branches, we’re also finding that we’re working together more and more to build a shared view of our connected chains – instead of duplicating effort across the business.”

Want to be in control of your transactions – rather than feel like they’re controlling you?

Contact us today – and try mio FREE for 6 months.

Since adopting mio in September 2018, Josh Lally, Senior Sales Negotiator based at Connells, Emerson’s Green, Bristol shares how mio has made chain building easier, been simple to learn AND increased his rate of exchange per month. In his own words, “the main game-changer has been convenience”. 

Building chains is quick and simple – with no risk of duplicated effort 

mio has been designed by property professionals for property professionals, offering a smarter way to manage the home buying process. With centralised communications and reduced rekeying, branches using mio have seen a noticeable increase in productivity – particularly when managing chain building.

“Building chains used to be incredibly frustrating, as it would take quite a long time to piece the full picture together, and often I would complete the work only to find out that my colleague had worked on the same chain earlier that day. 

However, with mio, it only takes a few minutes to put a chain together and I can immediately see if one of my colleagues has already built the chain, so I don’t have to. This has helped to save time (and frustration) across the team. It’s also far easier to come back to the chain and amend it, if necessary.”

Notes are clear and accessible for everyone involved 

mio also makes it easier for branches to manage day-to-day tasks, such as adding notes to cases and sharing information between colleagues and customers when they need to.

“mio definitely helps me to keep on top of my sales progression and makes it far easier to share information. If I’m out, I know one of my colleagues can easily see the information they need to be able to update a client.”

“Before mio, I relied on sheets of paper to keep on top of my sales progression. Handwritten notes could cause difficulties, especially if a colleague was off sick and someone else needed to read and share the information with any of our home movers.”

Easy to learn and navigate – from the very first day

One of the biggest concerns with adopting new technology is that teams will struggle to use it and it will have a negative impact on productivity before any benefits are realised. Yet this has not been the case with mio.

“When we were first talking about adopting mio, I was a bit worried that it would be somehow restrictive in what you could do, particularly in terms of updates and notes. I was also slightly concerned that it might not be easy to use and I wouldn’t be able to find the information that I needed. 

However, I’ve found it really easy to access and use. It wasn’t a struggle at all. The chains and updates are all very easy to navigate. Milestones are also quick to update, and then it’s clear what has and hasn’t been done – at just a quick glance.”

Want to be in control of your transactions – rather than feel like they’re controlling you?

Contact us today – and try mio FREE for 6 months.

One month on from introducing sales progression and communication tool, mio, to her branch in Chippenham (Wiltshire), Michelle Hallas, Residential Sales Manager at Allen and Harris shares how much easier it is to keep on top of her transactions – and share progress updates with her clients. 

“It used to be a struggle to keep our paper files up to date”

“We used to put all of our notes in a file, and it could be quite hit and miss as to how accurate and up to date they were. Even with the best intentions, it was easy to forget to add the odd note here or there – especially if the phone rang again and I couldn’t immediately get to the file. 

As you can imagine, this could create some rather frustrating situations, such as asking a customer or solicitor a question they’d already answered with one of my colleagues – purely because their file wasn’t up to date." 

“mio brings more visibility to our sales progression process and makes it so much easier to keep an eye on things” 

“I now use mio every day. It makes it so much easier to monitor progress. The milestones are great, as they prompt you on where you need to be with each transaction. It’s a massive improvement on riffling through paper files to understand where each property is and what needs to happen that week to move things forward.

That’s not all. mio brings visibility to all parts of the process, from seeing all of my recent cases on the home dashboard (so I don’t have to go searching for them), to offering a complete view of the chain, alongside easily accessible contact details of any connected estate agents and solicitors.” 

“The customer-facing app helps homemovers stay up to date – without needing to phone into the branch”

“The app is also great for staying in touch with our clients. Not only can they keep an eye on progress updates with a shared view of the property status, but they can message directly through it. One of my current homemovers even prefers instant messaging to phone calls, as she finds it quicker and easier to get a response – instead of trying to get through to me on my busy line. She even posted a message into our chat the other day saying “Thanks. You are a star.” using the star emoji, which was nice. 

From a compliance point of view, mio is also really helpful, as once a property completes, I can print off all of the notes against that case of every action, update and instant message, so I have a full audit trail on file – and nothing is lost in telephone conversations or inboxes.”

“It was easy to get started with mio. If I can do it, anyone can.”

“It was easy getting started with mio too. Our Account Manager came in to show us the ropes and we used it straight away. I’m not a massive technology person, but if I can do it, anyone can. It’s simple to navigate and understand.”

Want to be in control of your transactions – rather than feel like they’re controlling you?

Contact us today – and try mio FREE for 6 months.

A new highways data layer is now visible on your tmconvey mapping. Developed in line with customer feedback, you can highlight where the highway is, as well as see the name of the street. 

If you then click the highlighted highway on the map, a side tab will appear with information including maintenance, USRN (Unique Street Reference Number) and more.

If you would like to enable this new data layer, you’ll need to update your preferences in our recently added Map Data Layers section – by selecting the ‘highways’ option from the data layers listed. 

We’ve also added some helper text to the Map Data Layers section to make it even easier for you to choose the data layers you need. 

If you have any questions or queries, please contact your Account Manager, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk 

John Madge at Cox & Hodgetts Solicitors explains how switching to tmconvey’s Post-Completion services has helped him to speed up SDLT submission in his firm by 2 weeks. 

“It used to take at least a fortnight for any SDLT5 forms to be returned.”

“Before using tmconvey’s Post-Completion services, my firm relied on posting paper SDLT submission forms to HMRC – and I would typically be waiting weeks for my SDLT5 forms to be returned. Even the quickest turnarounds were at least a fortnight. 

This put pressure on my AP1 submission times and put them at risk of cancellation. Not only that, but occasionally forms would go astray, and I would have to waste time making chasing calls – and sometimes even start from scratch if they went missing completely. 

I also once had a case where I had to appeal the penalty for a late submission, by confirming the dates of cheques sent and cashed. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that HMRC had also been in touch with my client directly with a penalty notice, so I also had to mitigate the reputational damage with my clients with additional phone calls and evidence of payment.”

“It’s so much quicker to fill in the SDLT forms online – and we get our SDLT5 back within seconds.”

“I’ve been using tmconvey’s Post-Completion services since October 2018, and find it so much quicker than paper submission – especially as my SDLT5 forms are returned in seconds. 

I also find it easier to fill the SDLT forms in online, as not only is there no chance of it going missing in the post, there’s also less risk of information getting lost in translation and misspelt on any returned SDLT5 forms.” 

“Even the most complicated scenarios are simple to process with intelligent, online forms”

“I always used to hate complicated scenarios when it came to filling out the SDLT form, such as a freehold property with a separate leasehold garage under a different title, as I would never be 100% sure of the sections I should fill out or whether the form would be sent back to me with additional queries. 

However, as tmconvey’s online forms only present the fields I need to complete, it’s simple to fill out and get it right first time, so I can get the results returned just as quickly as any other submission I’m working on. 

The interactive forms and automated error checking also help to make sure I don’t miss off any information. For example, if my client hasn’t sent across their National Insurance number, it’s obvious this information is missing from the form – and I’m reminded to add it before I click submit.”

Want to find out how tmconvey’s Post-Completion services can help to save your team time when submitting SDLT forms?

Take a look at tmconvey’s Post-Completion services, or request a FREE demo of tmconvey’s Post-Completion services.