Changes in the Home Moving industry
There’s a lot of change going on at the moment across the wider home moving industry, it’s really exciting to be working in a sector where so much is happening. There seems to be concerted energy to improve the home moving process.
It’s very interesting to see the different types of changes coming through – in some cases the impetus is being provided by national bodies, in other cases industry groups are proposing the way forward and in some cases, individual companies and entrepreneurs are filling gaps and launching new products.
I’ve pulled out some of the recent topics that crossed my path and tie in with our aims for DigitalMove:
Information upfront
It’s a logical conclusion that having key property and mover information gathered and prepared before a sale commences could help to reduce unnecessary delays later in the process and could also help to improve conversion.
At the top level, this principle looks to have been acknowledged recently by National Trading Standards. Currently, Estate Agents must not omit ‘material information’ on property listings, however, Trading Standards sees that “current practices around disclosure are not consistent across the industry” and plan to develop guidance on what is ‘material information’.
The Law Society has launched a pilot to collect information at earlier stages in the home moving process. The pilot aims to produce a shortened version of the TA6 form (Part 1) that could influence purchasing decisions and also supports the early instruction of a solicitor.
The Home Buying and Selling Group, an industry group made up of around 120 organizations, has released their Buying and Selling Property Information (BASPI) – a dataset designed to capture essential information about a property upfront to help with purchase decisions and speed up conveyancing.
The concept of collecting information upfront is consistent with the process followed in our DigitalMove journey. We allow buyers and sellers to complete as much of their onboarding information upfront, online in a digital format – in some cases, movers have done this in as little as two hours!
We know movers find this convenient and helpful, as they are often keen to get stuck in. It also allows conveyancers to kick off their case with all the necessary information available to them in a format they can easily access.
Signatures and Identification
The pandemic has been a catalyst for change in the home moving industry, HM Land Registry started accepting electronic signatures in July 2020. This was an important outward signal to the conveyancing industry, with a government department leading the way forward allowing a paper-based process to be replaced by a digital one.
HM Land Registry has also progressed with Digital Identity, releasing their standard for Safe Harbour. This gives conveyancers, and technology providers like us, a clear definition of a good process to work towards.
The value adds of both processes for movers is straightforward to identify – a more convenient experience that can occur anywhere, anytime on a mobile device. It can also offer enhanced security, with the use of biometric checks.
Both digital IDs and digital signatures are currently live in DigitalMove. We have been offering Advanced digital signatures since 2019 and we are currently working with our digital ID provider to clarify and adjust any details to ensure we can meet the HMLR digital identity standard in the near future.
We know every conveyancer won’t have the capacity or technical capability to implement some of these standards, but we see that as one of the value-adds of DigitalMove that we can provide. We can do the heavy lifting once, to ensure we’re offering leading technology to many.
