"What we need now is feedback and hopefully support, including testing and piloting new ways of moving home from those that haven’t been involved in the Group’s work to date."
The Home Buying and Selling Group (HBSG) has launched a discussion paper to help improve the home buying and selling process, seeking feedback from across the home moving industry, government and consumers.
HBSG is an informal mix of people from across the property, legal and finance sectors, who believe that if the industry, government, and media work together, the home buying and selling process can be improved for consumers.
However, to secure changes, it says the whole home moving industry needs to come together to agree on what solutions would work ‘on the ground’, test and pilot upfront initiatives, for example, property logbooks, property packs or other solutions and agree on changes the industry can make itself and where government help is needed.
The paper sets out a different way of moving home which the industry can deliver now, including instructing a legal company on day one of marketing, buyers being financially qualified prior to viewings, and aiming to move everyone by 1pm on the day of completion.
The HBSG also set out the help required by government to revolutionise the sector for the future including implementing the already agreed changes to the leasehold sector, mandating upfront information which meets recognised standards, delivering single digital identity verification for sellers and buyers and turning a paper-led system into one that is digitised, where quality data can be trusted by all.
Kate Faulkner, chair of the Home Buying and Selling Group, commented: “We have worked hard to identify all the issues by working with trade and professional bodies, ombudsman, regulators, and redress schemes from all sectors involved in the home moving process, as well as government and importantly, practitioners, from small independent companies through to franchises and corporates.
“It’s an incredibly difficult job to secure support and agree on the best way forward for such a diverse industry, but by putting the consumer front and centre, we think we have a roadmap that will work. What we need now is feedback and hopefully support, including testing and piloting new ways of moving home from those that haven’t been involved in the Group’s work to date.”
