I’m going to break with all tradition and recent convention and write an article about the housing market and conveyancing that does not make reference to Home Information Packs (HIPs) (sorry – failed in the very first line). E-conveyancing is one of those topics that often seems inexplicably linked with HIPs, but actually as a stand-alone issue and objective is very interesting and achievable. The housing market has a myriad of contradictions and complications with which we are well-versed but, more importantly, there are also a number of opportunities and numerous areas of improvement.
The vision for conveyancing from the government is simply ‘Easier conveyancing for all’ and, although a noble aim, it would be fair to say this has met with a little scepticism by the market. One reason perhaps is a rather tired and clichéd belief that any plan requiring solicitors to become more computer literate is predestined to fail. I think it’s widely accepted that solicitors have not always been the ‘innovators’ or ‘early adopters’ in the technological product life-cycle but they are rarely slow in developing genuine business improvements.
To read some reports, you would be forgiven in thinking that these legal brains were poised to re-enact the Luddite rebellions of 1811 and smash government computers in the dead of the night (it’s an interesting thought that should not perhaps be dismissed so quickly).
I must confess I often strain to understand the motivation of the harbingers of doom; perhaps they just believe that all change is bad (or were bullied as children?) The reality is that the conveyancing conundrum is neither easy or insurmountable.
Tremendous opportunities
Although there is not a single, easy answer to the question of how to speed up conveyancing, there are tremendous opportunities for all of the parties in the process to reap the benefits. For lenders, there is the opportunity to improve their efficiency and profitability and realise greater control over the instruction process.
This is accomplished with the creation of an integrated solution that works both within their internal and external processes. There is a growing realisation that it is possible to create a situation truly offering the best of both worlds when automation is introduced wherever possible throughout the process.
Lenders also benefit from greater control over service standards, expenditure and even income. This, as is so often the case, is directly linked to minimizing inefficient manual processes where appropriate. Systems for lenders have been developed that have specific, worthy and, most importantly, achievable objectives.
Although providers of the latest technology, communications and ‘pipework’ within the industry do stand to gain financially, I say good for them. As long as the parties involved in the process and the end customer are gaining and not losing, whether this is through cost efficiency, time saved or reduced cost then so much the better.
The Conveyancing Portal, for example, provides real-time connectivity between the lender and the conveyancer, enabling instructions to be panelled automatically from the lender’s processing system to the conveyancers case management system. In addition, the case management system has the ability to automatically update the lender’s system with pre-agreed milestones. With the data only being keyed once, the propensity of inaccurate data reduces significantly, which in turn means the management information that can be provided is robust and transparent.
The industry’s first tentative steps towards this level of automation should be seen as merely that; the first steps. Portals can also be developed to accommodate documentation transfer if required, such as mortgage offers, revised offers, certificate of title, etc. It may not seem it, but this move really is a red-letter day, cost-wise, for businesses.
This is primarily because a lot of the set-up costs are going to be absorbed by the technology companies who have lower developments costs, as knowledge is inherent in their other business programmes. Furthermore, once links are in place, the marginal cost for adding new users or new interfaces is negligible.
Benefits
So, what are the tangible benefits?
The benefits for the market are wide and encompassing but this does not mean an increase in pressure on either the situation or the parties whether they are lenders, conveyancers, estate agents, mortgage advisers or the customers themselves. Why? Simple. Because using electronic means for distributing conveyancing instructions is simply going to make the process easier. It’s the line of least resistance, the sensible choice, the ‘no-brain’ decision and the smart move. If you need a pint of milk and there are two shops, one half-a-mile away and the other a mile away what do you do?
That’s right – you get the milkman to deliver. It costs the same but involves less effort. Search as anyone might, for any underlying motivation or ‘angle’, this is why technology will continue to be an integral part of the house buying process. Some of the practical benefits include data accuracy, which is enhanced through a single data input into lenders processing system. Because this automatically populates conveyancers case management systems there is no re-keying, which inevitably result in errors. Furthermore, there is a natural improvement in the integrity and standardisation of data. Any information entered into the system will share common standards and even ‘look and feel’.
I mentioned earlier the ‘line of least resistance’ and this can be seen in the fact that a single integration with a portal actually creates multiple integrations. This is not a one-to-one link but a gateway to connect interested parties. Although some of the technology that sits within some systems is genuinely breathtaking (and often completely unintelligible to people like me) the success will come on the back of simple, practical improvements to the way that things are done.
Central systems will enable conveyancing processes to take place and allow many different forms of computer hardware and software to communicate with each other to make the conveyancing process run as smoothly as possible.
More electronic transfer of data will happen and will work for no other reason than it simply makes the process faster and easier.
Pace of change
Caroline Havers, partner with Salans, a leading specialist volume remortgage and conveyancing firm of solicitors said: “The pace of change facing the residential conveyancing market has forced solicitors to look at their processes to establish a more effective service. This is in part due to a dawning realisation that with the introduction of e-conveyancing, the market will change radically. Simply put, it is a survival strategy.”
The Conveyancing Portal was introduced to Salans at the specific request of a major lender client to pioneer the transfer of bulk re-mortgage instructions. It soon became abundantly clear the benefits that could be derived from such an interface went far beyond merely the avoidance of data re-entry and reduction in the replication of data.
Machine-to-machine communication lead us to re-model our front end processes, which in turn lead to a redeployment of the staff who had previously had the task of the incepting daily instruction quotas.
The Conveyancing Portal has provided all parties a higher degree of transparency; both Salans and the client are presented with identical key milestone data. If cases are updated, the client receives the information, reducing the need for calls, e-mails or even case-tracking, which can be cumbersome, and not always real-time.
Through use of the Conveyancing Portal. our lender client has seen a reduction in the average time taken to process cases.
It has also led to us and our client being able to review many long established procedures. We have both looked at ways of re-engineering the way we do business together to take advantage of the benefits that integrated solutions are offering.
The use of this type of client-to-solicitor interface leads to a whole spectrum of improvement possibilities, including reduced despatch costs, lower operating costs and the nirvana of a more paperless environment.
David Ford is director at xit2 – Conveyancing Portal
