Navigating the legal process of homebuying, even for straightforward transactions, is now one of the “biggest challenges” faced by both buyers and sellers, advice firm Continuum has argued.
The firm explained that delays caused by the legal process of purchasing residential property are “causing issues for both buyers and sellers”, with clients likely to face even more delays as activity increases in the housing market.
It evidenced this claim by pointing out that the average conveyancing case takes over 12 weeks, representing a dramatic slowdown over the past two years.
Continuum independent financial adviser, Anthony Harris, said: “The market has been a bit dull for much of the last nine months, but we are now starting to see an increase in activity.
“It appears buyers have simply decided that they are going to make the jump now as property prices are not really falling and waiting is not going to achieve much for them anymore.
“From a homeowner’s and even first time buyer perspective the current state of the conveyancing market is a nightmare.”
Harris explained this is a recent issue as before the Coronavirus pandemic, a team in a solicitor’s office worked in the same office so were able to literally hand over a case to another person if it needed something doing.
This meant the case got looked at very quickly and “triaged” by the new person.
However, during Covid with everyone working from home that was not possible, so they adopted a system that purely worked on ‘order of receipt’ meaning that each time a case was passed to the next person, it moved back to the bottom of the queue.
“Ever since, despite the desire to move people back into office, it appears that the system is still operating on that ‘back to the bottom of the queue’ approach every time someone new needs to do something, which means it is getting slower and slower,” Harris explained.
Despite the potential for even further delays in a time of rapidly changing mortgage rates, Harris said that lenders used by Continuum are prepared for legal delays.
“As far as rates go, most lenders will allow you to obtain a re-offer if rates fall before completion,” he explained.
“This means getting an offer out early should not be an impediment for the client, even if they face delays during conveyancing.
“However, not all lenders facilitate re-offers, and this kind of attention to detail is where a good independent mortgage adviser can really prove their worth.”
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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