The BASPI is a “single source of truth” dataset created by the Home Buying and Selling Council and aims to include the information required on a property when it is put on the market for sale.
The dataset consists of two parts and allows the seller to “ensure their property is both market ready and sale ready”.
Part A includes information on the property to be sold, disputes and complaints, alterations and changes, notices, specialist issues, fixtures and fittings, utilities and services, insurance, boundaries, rights and informal arrangements, and any other issues affecting the property.
Part B includes legal ownership, legal boundaries, services crossing other property, energy, guarantees, warranties and indemnity insurances, occupiers, and completion and moving.
The new version of BASPI has some changes to existing questions and adds new questions focusing on electric charging points, flat roofs on properties, energy-efficiency retrofitting activity, and further information regarding any planning permissions and any heating system installations.
Welcome to the future: how collaboration is driving the shift to digital home buying
Sponsored by Halifax Intermediaries
Beth Rudolf, director of delivery at the Conveyancing Association, said: “Every year, we conduct a full review and industry consultation to ensure the BASPI is up to date and to reflect any changes in law, and ongoing updates that may be required. This is now the sixth iteration of the dataset and there are some minor tweaks to existing questions, as well as a small number of new ones.
“The government’s recent commitment to digitalise the home buying and selling process further is a positive next step. We hope the proptech sector will then be able to complete much more of the BASPI using the digitalised authority data. This will mean that they can produce, as the output of the BAPSI, the material information needed by estate agents to comply with the law and direct potential buyers to the appropriate advisers relevant to the material information.”
She continued: “While this could be the conveyancer for matters of a legal nature, surveyors for condition, or the financial adviser, some issues will point the potential buyer to specialist advisers, such as the International Property Flood Resilience Association or the Environment Agency.
“We hope this means conveyancers will be reassured their client has no expectation they will receive advice from them on matters for which they do not have the expertise and, as a result, reduce the scope creep firms have been trying to deal with.
“The Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) is working with all sectors to identify what each has the expertise to advise on. This should make life easier for conveyancing firms as they will only be advising on the legal aspects revealed by the title and the search results, and on how to protect the reliance on the information given by the seller during the transaction.”
