Well, this was a meeting I have been waiting ages for.
As you can probably guess Beth de Montjoie Rudolf is a very busy lady!
As well as being the CEO of the Society of Licenced Conveyancers here in the UK (an “un-official” group of Solicitors who solely deal with property conveyancing), she is also the owner of Conveyancing Systems and Solutions a Conveyancing Consultancy service which provide IT systems to law offices around the country.
Professing to be a champion of the smoothmove network, Beth has convinced many law firms throughout Great Britain to adopt a protocol enabling house sale and purchase transactions to progress smoothly by agreeing some simple straightforward procedures, which cut out much of the time wasting enquiries which can be fatal to the conveyancing transaction.
When I booked my meeting with her I had to slot it in between her visiting Her Majesty’s Land Registry Offices and the Law Society. I felt quite star struck, but in reality Beth is a down to earth, bubbly, infectious and creative character who you cannot help but like straight away. Even if she is a trained Solicitor and Estate Agent!
As previously mentioned on here, Beth is trying all she can to transform the way conveyancing solicitors handle the legal side of things here in the UK and has been campaigning for quite a few years to make major changes to the law.
She’s now trying to convince bankers to refuse to lend monies less than 5 days prior to completion so that everyone in the chain gets more notice to move home. She says that if the bankers dictate that this is the minimum requirement for them to organise the transfer of funds, then the Government would have to listen to the Banks because of their power within the UK economy. Of course, many of us think within the removal industry that 5 days is still not enough as we’re usually fully booked during the summer weeks in advance, but Beth says trying for any more than this is near impossible.
She says that as much as we (removers) think it’s all the fault of the lawyers, in reality, they are being dictated to by their clients, the people with the money. And people being people, they do tend to give in when they are being pushed far enough into a corner.
I claimed that if it was law that we have at least 2 weeks notice between exchange and completion then no one could complain because they would have no option but to comply. But of course Solicitors being Solicitors always seem to come up with one reason or another why this isn’t possible…..
I brought up the subject of the Chain Matrix again to find out what was happening with the online system that was supposed to revolutionise the UK property industry. But the news was not good. From Beth, at least.
Because the Land Registry are now down in revenue by over 75% since the start of the recession, they have no money to get the scheme back up and running again. She sounded as though I should feel sorry for the Land Registry, but I pointed out that movers have had an extremely tough time of it over the last couple of years too and if it’s hard for the Government, imagine how hard it is for small businesses.
I mentioned that the Australians seemed to be making it happen, so why can’t the English?
However, upon my return home, I found an update from the E-Homebuying Forum who are celebrating the fact that Conveyancing Direct, a Solicitors firm based in Glasgow, has facilitated one of their fastest transactions to date, due to a new IT system produced by a private web applications firm. And since the press release date from the EHBF, several other records have been broken by solicitors submitting a live electronic mortgage deed directly from their case management system using the Land Registry’s new Business Gateway. So it looks like the launch of the Chain Matrix could be closer than we think…
After a good chin wag about the property market, gossip about lawyers and estate agents and what it’s been like in the removal industry since we met last year, we finally got down to making plans for the future.
Beth LOVES the idea of having a conference focused solely on the property industry and how we can create a better future for all parties concerned. She suggested that we get all the Trade Associations and representative bodies together first to hash it out in a smaller gathering and then have a larger conference where attendees would be invited from all the industries concerned with the moving process.
Watch this space as we start to get the Law Society, National Association of Estate Agents, the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the BAR and Guild, the E-Homebuying Forum, the Society of Licenced Conveyancers, RICS, AHIPP and many more together in one room and watch the sparks fly!
But I need your help and support to make this happen.
We need as many movers as possible to know about this so we can get the Trade Associations on our side. They need to know that change must happen for our industry to thrive and grow stronger. And they need to know that a solution is already on it’s way, but if we’re not careful it could pass us by completely.
If the Chain Matrix finally gets created and an online system is implimented throughout the Conveyancing and Estate Agency Industries, we must be a part of that.
Movers need to be able to log on and see the status of our client’s property transactions, just as importantly as the Estate Agent who markets the house and cuts the deal and the Surveyor who values the house for the mortgage lender.
To not be able to log into this system and see when the exchange of contracts and completion are due to take place, no matter how limited the information given to us is, would be a complete travesty.
And confirmation that the hard work we do as movers goes un-noticed and unrecognised.
If you are ready to see some changes happen within the UK moving industry, please click on the share button below and invite as many movers to read this blog as possible and help to create a better future for our industry.
Sitting on the fence and waiting for someone else to get involved and find the answers is not acceptable any more. We have to take a stand and cause change before another 20 years passes by and we’re still talking about the same old problems…….
Filed under: E-Homebuying Forum, Our Future, Problems, Removal Industry, Short Notice, Transformation | Tagged: conveyancing, industry, moving, property, solicitors, Transformation | Leave a Comment »
