Eight out of 10 (83%) estate agents support the concept of more upfront property information being made available to purchasers pre-offer but there is still uncertainty about where this information will come from, a survey from Home Owner’s Passport (HOP) reveals.

New Material Information rules surrounding Parts B and C are expected to be announced by Trading Standards later this month. But some agents are worried where about where they are expected to get that information from when the new rules are introduced.

REQUIREMENTS

Worryingly only 50% of estate agents surveyed were aware of Parts B and C of the Material Information requirements.

Nearly half (44%) of agents surveyed said they were likely to obtain the information directly from the vendor.

But whilst this has been a credible option for the limited requirements of Part A, it is likely that Parts B and C will include data such as restrictive covenants and easements – something vendors often don’t know about.

The next two preferred sources of the data for the agents that responded to the survey were from a conveyancer or direct from an existing CRM provider.

Many lawyers are already starting to provide pre-offer instructions and title fix services, and tech onboarding solutions such as HOP can provide API integrations of the required data directly into CRMs.

CONVEYANCING DATA

Sally Holdway (main picture), HOP Director, and who was herself a practising conveyancing solicitor, says: “As we move towards the inclusion of what has traditionally been seen as ‘conveyancing’ data in the new rules, our advice to agents is to obtain this information either directly from lawyers, or from the same sources the lawyers use.

“The potential sanctions for getting this wrong are significant for agents, so it is important to get it right first time.

“As we have built our Material Information Reports in HOP we have been careful to do it to existing conveyancing standards, so agents can trust the results.”