The post mini Budget fallout looks likely to be with us for some time, and whether those customers are seeking to purchase or remortgage, it is not surprising their level of engagement with all property professions has risen considerably.
Part of the major issue for everyone has been processing cases quickly. When lenders have been pulling products and rates, advisers have been up against it in terms of processing applications in order to secure better-priced products, and of course, clients also want their lenders and conveyancers to work through those cases as quickly as possible in order to get them to completion.
Commitment to digitalisation
One of the Conveyancing Association’s (CA) main areas of work continues to be on improving the home buying and selling process, but this is also relevant to remortgage work, and a greater use of technology and digitisation will deliver, in our opinion, a much more efficient and streamlined process.
We recently surveyed our member firms on what they believe the priorities should be for us as a trade body. It was noticeable that working to deliver a digital process figured so highly in feedback, with greater use of digital signatures, identification and anti-money laundering all cited as ways in which we could make significant improvements.
As a sector we have to recognise that conveyancing firms are on completely different parts of the journey and, in order to get improvement right across the industry, there needs to be a greater commitment to digital.
Rate of adoption
To highlight this, Infotrack recently published research which it used to produce a Digital Conveyancing Maturity Index, looking at conveyancing firms and ranking their adoption of digital conveyancing tools and how far down the road they were – or were not – towards “maturity” in this area.
The survey looked at firms in terms of digitisation within the process they use and the firm itself, from everything to client onboarding to post-completion work.
Member firms of the CA took part, and – perhaps not surprisingly – the research found a big disparity between all types of conveyancing firms in terms of their digital take-up. The average maturity score was 43 per cent, however a smaller group of firms scored 80 per cent-plus.
Interestingly, the big factor in terms of scoring higher was deemed to be the integration between the case management system used and other digital services. Where this was in effect, it was shown to allow the firm to have one “source of truth” in terms of how their staff engage with the process and clients.
This produces significant benefits, however it does also show that even with some mild adoption of the digital technology available, quicker processing and faster completions can be achieved. This was particularly true, and represented far more, in firms’ post-completion work. For example, the increased use of digital signatures to sign Land Registry and mortgage deeds.
Case for digitalisation is clear
Overall, it seems clear that when we are all faced with a considerable period of high demand and intensive work commitments, the adoption of solutions that digitise elements of the process and work automatically, will “give back” that time and resource and allow all of us to complete cases far more quickly and in turn allow us to take on more business.
Advisers can concentrate on advice rather than chasing all stakeholders, lenders can see the number of post-valuation queries drop, conveyancers can focus less on administration and more on providing conveyancing advice, and the smoother movement of the process should ensure less headaches and stress for all, particularly our clients.
