LMS, BritainÃs leading conveyancer for the UKs banks and building societies, welcomed the decision by the Government to push ahead with legislation to introduce compulsory Home Information Packs (HIPs).
Speaking in response to the Office of the Deputy Prime MinisterÃs (ODPM) statement, Chris Harris, Legal Services Director of LMS, said: "It is high time that home buying was brought kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
The current system is a failure to the public which causes widespread frustration, anger and despair as a third of all agreed sales fall through - losing people more than £1million a day in wasted costs.
Home Information Packs will speed up the process and remove much of the uncertainty and stress in home buying by providing people with the information they need at the time they see the property, not weeks later.
HIPs will also ensure that sellers are more committed to selling their property at the outset, and so reduce the unacceptably high fall-out rate of the current system."
But LMS does have a major reservation about the GovernmentÃs proposals - the company believes that there should be a shelf life for HIPs of no more than six months.
"It is vital that the packs contain relevant and up to date information if buyers are to have confidence in them," said Chris Harris. "We believe that six months is the longest they should go before being updated and we will be pressing the Government to include this in the Regulations for the Bill."
SOLUTIONS
Although there are concerns from some bodies about how HIPs can be implemented, LMS has forged ahead and developed high tech solutions using its unique software and national network of professionals.
"LMS has already put in place the systems to make Home Information Packs work," said Chris Harris. "All someone wishing to sell their house will have to do is spend five minutes filling in an electronic form on screen, and then sit back while our proven on-line technology and unique network of experienced lawyers, surveyors and searchers creates all the documentation required.
"In just a matter of days their Home Information Pack will be delivered to them, and they will be able to track the whole process of their sale on the internet right the way from first instruction, through all the surveys and searches, to conveyancing and then on to completion.
'This also meets the demands of both the ODPM and its Select Committee that the process of buying and selling homes should be simple, transparent and electronic."
