The major bugbear for agents selling homes is that sales fall through because of delays in finalising contracts.

Launched in January by two experienced panel managers, Elite Panel Management is firmly focused upon improving the speed and quality of conveyancing provided via estate agents. It has now launched a guarantee to have clients ready to exchange contracts within 30 days from instruction.

The guarantee is applicable to freehold properties only at the moment and is conditional upon one of their panel lawyers working on either side of the transaction. However, it demonstrates their clear intention to shake the industry up for the better and is welcome move against the backdrop of what many agents have described as a general decline in service standards over the last 10 years.

Sales Director, Carl Brignell (left) says, “Both clients and agents have been telling the conveyancing industry for a very long time that they want a fast and personable service yet many of the larger providers have failed to satisfy these primary needs, instead choosing to concentrate on their own short-term profitability.

“Our 30 day guarantee is testament to the skills and commitment of the solicitors that we work with and the work we have done behind the scenes to make this happen.”

The average time to exchange of contracts in England and Wales is between 8-12 weeks and so this is an ambitious move from Elite. Whilst there have been many advancements in technology within the conveyancing industry no provider has dared to compete on speed.

Chris Harris (right), CEO at Elite said that there is a growing frustration from good lawyers up and down the country at having to deal with inexperienced, under-qualified and over worked conveyancers on the other side of many transactions.

“Elite provides a service through which decent lawyers can now compete on a national level based upon service.”

Chris Harris was previously Legal Services Director at LMS before leaving to launch his own consultancy and ‘Today’s Conveyancer’. More recently Chris was responsible for the development and delivery of the award-winning legal service ‘Lawyer Checker’.

Carl Brignell was previously a Director at the London Estate Agent, KFH, where he created and managed their renowned conveyancing service, Londonwide Conveyancing.

Elite Panel Management has offices in London and Cheshire and offers conveyancing services via estate agents.

For more information see www.elitepanelmanagement.co.uk