When selling or buying a house, avoiding delays in the conveyancing process can be crucial, especially if you are involved in a chain in either your purchase or sale.
An innovation in the market is the Home Owner’s Passport (HOPs), which aims to provide an indication of the timescale you are likely to experience in the completion process. The online facility has been developed in conjunction with Keele University by Teal Legal.
Conveyancing protocol
By predicting the period that a conveyance should take for a particular property, the HOPs process hopes to give sellers and buyers an idea of the timescale for their transactions and highlight the elements of the process that are likely to cause delays.
If you are selling your property or looking to purchase, you should be aware of the Conveyancing Protocol created by the Law Society, which spells out preferred practice when it comes to residential conveyances for both leasehold and freehold properties.
You will also want to employ a trustworthy firm of conveyancing solicitors found at sites such as https://www.samconveyancing.co.uk/.
Even then, clients often have issues with the time spent on the legal process involved in their sale or purchase. They are often left with questions about whether the process has been slowed by the quality of their conveyancers, surveyors or mortgage advisers. The aim of HOPs is to advise the seller how to speed up their own position making them ready to move and provide reassurance to buyers that the transaction will move swiftly, thus speeding up what can be a complex process.
Due diligence
It is important to note, however, that HOPs are not a due diligence process for the conveyancing process. Instead, it focuses on the most commonly recognised delays in transactions, helping the move date to be achieved as swiftly as possible.
It does this by using algorithms to calculate the complexity of each transaction, predicting a timescale for completion. This is vital because sales often fall through after an offer has been accepted because of the time the conveyancing process is taking. Both parties often underestimate how long processes such as local searches or surveys may take. HOPs are designed to ensure that sellers and buyers understand the time it may take to reach completion.
HOPs reports are available to agents and sellers for a fee.