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7 out of 10 of home movers want to be updated by their conveyancer at least once a week on the progress of their property transaction, a report compiled by leading property and data provider tmgroup has found.

With the property market continuing on an upwards curve throughout 2015 and peaking before the SDLT surcharge came into effect on April 1st 2016,  conveyancers have been inundated with new cases and subsequently experienced unprecedented levels of chasing from clients, lenders and estate agents.

The Home Moving Trends survey, conducted by the Property Academy in partnership with tmgroup, asks more than 5400 home movers a number of questions designed to reveal how they found, selected and rated their conveyancers. Among the questions posed at the end of last year, respondents were asked: “How often do you want your conveyancer to update you?

Most clients want an update at least once a week
Continuing a trend from 2014, around 70% of home movers wanted to be kept updated at least once a week but perhaps the surprising part is that they still want an update even if there is nothing new to report.

Some only want an update when there is something to report
In contrast, the survey found that 22.1% of respondents only want their solicitor or conveyancer to contact them when there is something they need to know, such as when searches are returned or contracts are ready to be exchanged.

tmgroup account director Jon Horton said:
“With differing expectations from clients over how often you contact them, our advice is that you consult with each client at the outset and ask how frequent they would like progress updates. Tailor your contact with each individual client if you can but if you know you can’t meet their expectations, let them know as early as possible. 7 out of 10 clients are looking for weekly updates, so taking a leaf out of Transport for London’s book in providing a ‘There is a good service on all London Underground Lines’-type of message when things are just ticking over can offer the reassurance they need.”

Read the full report

tmgroup have announced the release of the “most comprehensive mapping capability in the conveyancing industry”, including content from Land Registry’s National Polygon Service.

In addition to the data provided by the Land Registry, tmgroup have announced that their new mapping will feature market-leading functionality including complex data layers, automatic property & road outlining and improved usability.

Data layers
Conveyancers are now able to filter complex data layers over maps when plotting properties, giving them access to more information straight away. With aerial imagery and Local Authority boundaries layered over the map, conveyancers can make informed decisions on a property from the outset, saving time and hassle. See the video below for a demonstration:

Automatic property outlining
Once a property location has been identified, tmgroup will automatically present the user with an outline of that property where possible, based on the Land Registry’s dataset.

Automatic road outlining
Once a property location has been identified, tmgroup enables automatic outlining of the adjoining roads where possible.

Improved usability
Designed so you can use it across desktop and mobile devices, tmgroup’s new mapping is completely responsive and has a full screen capability, allowing you to access more of the map on one screen.

This follows tmgroup’s rebrand in November 2015 when the company revealed three new services for property professionals: tmconvey, tmcore and tmconnect. The mapping will be available as part of tmconvey – tmgroup’s comprehensive conveyancing platform, giving property solicitors everything they need to manage a property transaction.

tmgroup Sales & Marketing Director Ben Harris said:
“We’re delighted to bring our new mapping to conveyancers with market-leading functionality and more features to follow. We took the time to review feedback from our customers and make this a user-led development to ensure that users can enjoy the very best mapping available to conveyancers today. We will be rolling out more enhancements to our service for conveyancers which will help join up the property transaction for all parties.”

Existing tmgroup customers should speak to their account manager to enable this functionality, whilst conveyancers not currently using tmconvey can sign up for a free, no-obligation trial. Contact us on 0844 249 9200 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk to get started.

The largest survey of home movers has returned, with more than 5400 respondents giving feedback on their experiences with their conveyancers. Conducted by the Property Academy in association with tmgroup, the comprehensive annual survey seeks to shed light on the opinions of those who have moved house over the previous 12 months, including how they found, selected and rated their conveyancers. Along with the results of the survey, we provide insight and interpretation of the findings as well as practical advice for conveyancers to implement to take their firms further.

This report is vital for law firms who want to understand what their clients want, what they are already doing well and what could be done to improve. Amongst the findings, conveyancers will discover…

Why homeowners want the human touch:

This year’s survey revealed that 8 out of 10 home movers are looking for their conveyancers to be good communicators. Around two thirds of respondents also told us that they are looking for evidence that you can be pro-active not reactive.

“Most home movers were very complimentary about their conveyancers, focusing on the human elements of customer service such as communication and approachability. But even when things do go wrong, you can ensure that you’ve provided the best possible customer care by pro-actively communicating with your client that you’re doing everything you can to resolve the issue, don’t wait for them to chase you."

- Jon Horton, Account Director - tmgroup

Why low fees alone won’t sway them:

In 2015, just 11% of home movers chose the conveyancer that quoted the cheapest fees. A reduction from 13% in 2014 and 18% the year before that. Surprisingly, it was also found that no-one in their twenties chose the conveyancer that quoted the cheapest fees or considered price to be important when choosing a property solicitor.

“Whilst it can be tempting to cut prices to be more competitive, for the past three years home movers have repeatedly told us that they are not choosing the conveyancer that quoted the cheapest fees. Know your value and explain what the client can expect for their money, rather than simply cutting prices to win more business.”

- Ben Harris, Sales & Marketing Director - tmgroup

Why estate agents could be your route to higher revenue:

In 2015, 51% of home movers chose their estate agent’s recommended conveyancer, compared to just 38% the previous year - an increase of more than a third.

“With estate agents now accounting for more than half of consumers’ choice of conveyancer, you can’t afford to be complacent when it comes to building strategic relationships with the right agents. Also, with a significant proportion of home movers returning to a conveyancer they’ve used previously, you should also focus your energy on ensuring that your existing client’s experience is a positive one which will, in turn, encourage them to use you again when they move in the future and recommend you to friends and family.”

- Ben Harris, Sales & Marketing Director - tmgroup

Download Home Moving Trends 2015

In a property transaction, information concerning a property's relationship with local Highways has not always been readily available for conveyancers to pass on to their clients but serious problems can arise if they aren't identified early on in the transaction.

Recent research conducted by tmgroup revealed that 1 in 10 conveyancers never order a Highways Search, so we sat down with Rebecca Hickey Head of Legal Product at Landmark Information Group to learn more about why it's necessary to obtain this information.

Highways, why can they be tricky?
For residential and commercial conveyancing transactions, it is critical to investigate the precise extent of the adoption status of highways in and around the perimeter of the site. For example, you may believe that the footpath in front of the building is indeed publically owned and adopted but in reality it might not be.

What if the path hasn’t been adopted?
There could be potential issues with access to the property and it could have implications for the property owner regarding responsibility for its future upkeep; it could even affect the potential for redevelopment.

And if this wasn’t identified during the transaction?
Failure to identify developments where adoption procedures have not been dealt with adequately can cause delays to transactions as well as pose a risk to the purchaser’s future plans for the site.

So conveyancers should investigate?
Absolutely. If you were to imagine a typical scenario where a purchaser is looking to buy a property and the surrounding land which abuts a neighbouring property and there is a shared access onto the land.  As part of the due diligence the purchaser’s solicitor would need to identify the exact status of the access and the ownership of the area. 

Is it publicly adopted by the local authority, therefore they are responsible for maintenance and granting access or is it privately owned?  In order for the transaction to proceed the status of the access way would need to be confirmed.

What implications could it have for the purchaser?
Well, the purchaser may need to purchase additional pieces of land, negotiate shared access or at least negotiate a regular payment towards repairs.  This will undoubtedly add time and complexity to the transaction, which is not what either party want.

Vital information then – so, what sort of barriers would one normally face when attempting to source Highways data from Local Authorities?

With each Local Authority, the turnaround times for gathering this Highways data can vary widely. The same goes for the cost of the information and the level of detail provided.

How can you have the peace of mind that you have considered all the necessary aspects regarding the highways around the site?
A Highways report is the best way to obtain peace of mind for yourself and your client on this matter. For example, the Argyll SiteSolutions Highways report provides answers on the adoption status of highways surrounding the site; details of any road improvement schemes as well as rights of way. The report is manually assembled by a team dedicated to the production of this report with years of experience in the collation and analysis of Local Authority data and all data is sourced from the relevant Local Authority, Highways Agency or the Ordnance Survey. The report is backed by £10 million professional indemnity cover and has a fixed price of £120 +VAT.

About Rebecca
Rebecca Hickey joined Landmark Information Group in 2006 and fulfilled a number of different roles, including Project Manager and Senior Product Manager before taking the role of Head of Product (Legal Division) in 2015.

Vanessa Moscardo-Parker, Account Director at Landmark Information Group, talks us through RiskView Residential – a brand new all-in-one report for conveyancers available through tmgroup.

tm: RiskView Residential - what is it and who is it for?
V M-P: “RiskView Residential (RVR) is an all-in-one environmental report for residential property transactions that incorporates four Landmark reports into one. Now available through tmgroup, the report is supported by an online viewer so both conveyancers and consumers can log into our system to explore the results further.”

Why is it needed?
“Well, the report tells a conveyancer exactly what they need to know, presenting any risks to the property up-front and in an easy-to-read format. Also, it means you can offer a fixed fee rather than having to keep asking their clients for more money to cover extra reports. Another great aspect of the report is that the online viewer points the buyer in Landmark’s direction to help stream technical questions to the environmental experts, rather than the solicitors advising on the data.

We believe in making time for conveyancers here at tmgroup, how does this new report 'make time' for conveyancers?
“Landmark’s strapline for this report is ‘simple, helpful and accessible’ and that’s exactly what it is. In terms of making time for conveyancers, we’ve been finding that it saves around two thirds of the time it would take for you to check for environmental issues, so it lets you concentrate on other matters. The feedback during testing was that the copy and pastable text was by far the most useful part of the report as it really did save the solicitor and buyer a huge amount of time.”

How can home buyers make use of it?
“Using the online viewer, they’re able to visualise all of the data on one single map and get a better idea of how these factors could affect their purchase. They’re then able to contact the relevant expert for guidance and support to help them interpret the data correctly and answer questions themselves.”

What does the report include?
“The report reveals risks to the property associated with contaminated land and flooding, as well as energy and infrastructure and ground stability.”

What is the standard turnaround time?
“The same as a normal environmental report - turnaround will be 24-48hrs.”

Can you expedite this report?
“There’s no real need to do so as it’s back so quickly.”

What have you got planned for RiskView Residential in the future?
“We believe that the future is online for Landmark and with the majority of industries already using this format, it’s been extremely exciting developing this product. RVR will be developed as we get feedback from clients. The interactive ability of being able to visualise your property, the local area and any impact environmental risks have on your purchase will give the client a greater ability to make their own informed decision in a much better way.”

RiskView Residential
Environmental due diligence for every transaction with one simple report.
If you’d like to start saving time on your environmental property searches, RiskView Residential is now available to order through tmgroup. Contact your account manager or alternatively, call our helpdesk on 0844 249 9200 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk to get started.

About Vanessa
Vanessa Moscardo-Parker joined Landmark Information Group a number of years ago and is now Account Director.  Previously spending a number of years working with the property industry dealing with both new homes developers and housing associations across the country.  Vanessa works nationally for Landmark and is a regular provider of a range of environmental CPD courses for solicitors.

Local searches are an essential part of the conveyancing process and can reveal vital information to people looking to move house. tmgroup Managing Director Paul Albone explained to BBC Wiltshire exactly what a Local Authority search is and why they've been holding up property transactions in Wiltshire.

What is a local authority search? 

"It's generally information that's sourced from the local authority - there's more than 300 of those across England and Wales - and [the local search] provides information that's relational to your property and your local environment."

Why is it an essential part of the conveyancing process?

"When you're moving into a house, you might fall in love with it but you don't actually know what's going on around your neighbourhood; or the ownership and plans for development on that property, so it [the local search] really exposes that type of information to you [the buyer]."

What sort of problems can it flag up?

"For instance: you're moving into a new house and it's got a massive oak tree in the back garden. The first thing you're going to do is get a tree surgeon to take that [away] to give you some more light in the kitchen. One of the things that can happen is that you've got a tree preservation order on it so you won't be able to do that."

"Or you're choosing that house because there's a similar property down the road and there's a nice single-storey extension that'd be great for a kids' playroom; you could move in and find that it didn't have planning permission; building regs. haven't been signed off so you'll be liable for that cost and, at worst, be told to demolish the extension."

On average, how long can it take for a local authority search to come back with the answers that you need?

"Massive variation here, bit of a postcode lottery I'm afraid... the quickest is in less than half a day; the worst is over 60 days."

For more information on how long a local search takes, click here.

Listen to the full interview:

Several sinkholes have opened up across the UK in recent weeks, with some as large as 20m in diameter, causing significant inconvenience to residents and adverse effects to property prices in affected areas.

In Gosforth, "the hole has revealed old mine workings in an area which used to have a number of pits" and Newcastle and the Coal Authority are still assessing the extent of the collapse.

With Russel Tinnion, Spatial Team Lead

As part of the regular improvements to our search order platform, we are delighted to announce that we have added a free automatic boundary outlining feature to our mapping.

What does that mean for me?
When you locate a property as part of your case creation, either by entering an address or by positioning a red dot on the map, we’ll then present a boundary outline for you automatically, sourced from the Land Registry.

So it’s a good thing?
Absolutely, it will now be much easier & quicker for you to mark-up case plan maps.

What if the boundary outline is wrong or needs editing?
Generally the boundary outline should be a faithful representation of the property extent but, if you would like to make any amends, you can edit the boundary outline in the usual way before proceeding.

Are there any instances in which I won’t be presented with an outline automatically?
Currently we can only access data for freehold properties and therefore a boundary outline will not be presented to you automatically for: leasehold properties; manually-entered addresses; unregistered property; or properties made up of multiple separate boundaries. On these occasions, you are free to draw or upload your plan as you have done in the past.

Where are you getting the data from?
We’re working with the INSPIRE Index Polygons dataset which is an open source dataset from the Land Registry, developed to comply with the European Union INSPIRE Directive. Read more about INSPIRE

Does this INSPIRE Index polygon represent the Registered Title extent?
No, the extent of the land contained in any registered title cannot be established from the INSPIRE Index Polygons. This can only be identified from the individual title plan.

Over the last few weeks two notable planning cases have come to pass. In June, the case involving Orientfield Holdings Ltd. and Bird & Bird hit the headlines whilst, even more recently, the Thorp v Abbotts case also has significant implications for conveyancers, despite having not been subject to as much intense public scrutiny.

The crux of the latter case rested upon a claim that the sellers of the property had submitted fraudulent replies in the Seller’s Property Information Form (SPIF).

Shortly after the buyers (Thorp) moved in they became aware of a large-scale development in the area but, crucially, the sellers (Abbotts) were also aware of it too and had failed to mention it in the SPIF.

Some months later, the buyers commenced legal proceedings against the sellers for damages with regard to fraudulent misrepresentation.

However, the Court ruled in favour of the defendant.

Why?

Well, aside from the widely-held principle of caveat emptor (buyer beware), the Court considered that the terms ‘affecting’ and ‘communication’ from the SPIF should be given a ‘relatively confined’ interpretation in the favour of the seller.

To then further complicate the picture, in summary of the Orientfield Holdings Limited case, Judge Pelling QC ruled that:

“It is for the client to judge the impact of the material that may be relevant, not the solicitor.”

This summary would suggest that conveyancers need to make sure their clients have access to comprehensive information to make an informed purchasing decision.

Moreover, George Osbourne’s announcement of the new housing reforms on the 10th July 2015, in addition to the unveiling of a host of new planning reform measures designed to bolster the housebuilding process, could have further repercussions for conveyancers.

The new proposals allow automatic planning permission to be granted on many brownfield sites in England, with the knock-on effect that major projects in the housing industry could be fast tracked and rules on extensions in London relaxed. All of which points to a much busier environment outside of the limits of the information in the SPIF.

A simple solution which provides the information that a purchaser needs (but the seller does not have to supply) is a planning search. Easily available, not overly expensive and returned in a matter of hours for both residential and commercial transactions.

But these reports can sometimes run to one hundred pages in urban areas with a large amount of information which may be unfamiliar to the reader.

So how can the reader of the search, whether that is the buyer or conveyancer, quickly and easily identify the key issues within each report? Help is at hand. TM Group, in addition to the familiar planning reports from Groundsure and Landmark, offer a range of fully interpreted planning reports for residential and commercial transactions covering all budgets from Plan Val and Dev Assess.

For more information on any of these planning reports or to organise an in-house planning CPD please contact us on 0844 249 9200 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk.

The Mortgage Market Review intended to "hardwire common sense into the mortgage market" but, one year on, has it made any difference to a property transaction? TM Group's Nick Dyoss investigates...

The change in lending criteria introduced by the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) on 26th April 2014 were, as stated by the FCA, designed to "hardwire common sense into the mortgage market", and prevent a return to irresponsible lending that took place in the run-up to the credit crisis. Whilst time will tell if the long-term aims of MMR have worked, recent research by TM Group reveals one unintended consequence: namely that aborted or collapsed housing transactions are on the rise.

In April, TM asked conveyancers, “Have you witnessed an increase in the number of transactions that have aborted over the past 12 months?”

86% of respondents had seen no improvement or an increase in the last year and only 14% have recorded a fall. This begs the question of 'why?' when MMR was supposed to introduce stability.

February of 2015 saw research published by MoveWithUs which indicated that 49% of collapsed transactions were due to the mortgage falling through whilst 21% were caused by buyers not being able to afford as much as they thought due to MMR. Other issues cited were adverse searches & surveys and sales falling through higher up the chain.

Collapsed transactions are not a new problem.

Pre-MMR, in April 2014, QuickMoveNow highlighted a significant increase in their Sale-Fall-Through-Index with 27% of transactions in March 2014 failing to complete. The most common causes were identified to be on the seller’s side rather than the buyer's and included gazumping and problems with their own chain.

So what can be done to address this issue? Abortive transaction insurance for residential property is available from as little as £39.00 and will reimburse clients up to £1500 for conveyancing costs, mortgage arrangement fees, lenders fees and survey fees. Cover includes the most common reasons identified above including mortgage lending, gazumping and adverse searches and is also available for sale transactions as well.

Andrew Payne, the National Business Development Manager at Northcott Beaton, commented:

“‘The very nature of today’s property market means that there is heightened uncertainty within any transaction. If buying as an owner occupier, there are also elements of emotion attached to the transaction and, as such, it is imperative that consumers have the opportunity to protect themselves against the pitfalls of abortive transactions. In essence, this could indemnify the client for any financial loss enabling them to commit faster to any future potential purchase.”

Abortive Transaction Insurance from Northcott Beaton and underwritten by DAS is available from TM Group from £39 including IPT and is available for purchase and sale transactions.

For more information please contact your Account Manager. If you're new to TM Group, call us on 0844 249 9200 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk to get started.