Tuesday 23 February 2010
iPartnership launched
As part of our website development launched last month, we are delighted to announce that our online case management system, iPartnership, is now available to our clients and agents. The upgrade includes vastly improved presentation, as well as agent access to cases where their clients are using us for their conveyancing. This unique service enables agents to track the case online and even add their own notes to the case. The sophistication of the system means that any notes added by agents cannot be seen by clients, although agents may see all the comments added by clients.
Referral fees come under further scrutiny
Following our survey about our concerns about undisclosed referral fees being paid to estate agents, the Mail on Sunday has picked up the story and their latest reporting gives details about their concerns.
Click here for article
Click here for article
“A thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters …”
When Aristotle suggested that sufficient random typing would generate the works of Shakespeare, he probably didn’t envisage that this could be applied to the miles of newsprint still being devoted to discussions about Home Information Packs (HIPs). Judging by the feedback from agents, we suggest that the time for discussions about their merits or demerits has passed. We believe that it is time to move on to more pressing matters, such as the issue of the transparency of referral fees and quality concerns about the conveyancing process. Indeed, this was borne out in our recent survey which highlighted that in the opinion of many agents, a few well-trained solicitors are seen as being far more productive than dealing with the thousands of individuals working in conveyancing call centres.
iPartnership launches today
As part of our website development launched last month, we are delighted to announce that our online case management system, iPartnership, is now available to our clients and agents. The upgrade includes vastly improved presentation, as well as agent access to cases where their clients are using us for their conveyancing. This unique service enables agents to track the case online and even add their own notes to the case. The sophistication of the system means that any notes added by agents cannot be seen by clients, although agents may see all the comments added by clients.
Referral Fees – more coverage
Following their reporting last month of the results of our survey on referral fees, the Mail on Sunday has been prompted to investigate the issue further. Whilst in our survey we found that referral fees had a minimal impact on the choice of solicitors, the paper claimed that if an agent recommended a solicitor that this should disqualify them automatically. Notwithstanding the rather emotive language used, it is clear that solicitors must declare any fees paid to agents to their clients.
The original article is shown here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-1247684/Sellers-misled-agents-backhanders.html
and the latest article is included here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-1252890/MARKET-WATCH-Is-estate-agent-taking-bribes-lawyer.html
Naturally we remain committed to questioning the ethics of referral fees and will continue to offer our conveyancing and Home Information Pack service to clients without such fees.
Commercial Energy Performance Certificates
A trading standards officer visited one of our clients last week and questioned them as to why the reference number on the recommendation report for the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) was different from the certificate itself. This is because commercial EPCs are produced in two separate reports, rather than the single report in the residential version. Unfortunately the reference number is not cross-referenced in both, with the recommendation report only referring to the certificate but not vice versa. As the trading standards officer requested that both the certificate and recommendation report should be included with the property particulars, (we do not agree that this is a requirement under the law) they questioned the validity of the report because of the difference in numbering, which is not the case.
iPartnership launches today
As part of our website development launched last month, we are delighted to announce that our online case management system, iPartnership, is now available to our clients and agents. The upgrade includes vastly improved presentation, as well as agent access to cases where their clients are using us for their conveyancing. This unique service enables agents to track the case online and even add their own notes to the case. The sophistication of the system means that any notes added by agents cannot be seen by clients, although agents may see all the comments added by clients.
Referral Fees – more coverage
Following their reporting last month of the results of our survey on referral fees, the Mail on Sunday has been prompted to investigate the issue further. Whilst in our survey we found that referral fees had a minimal impact on the choice of solicitors, the paper claimed that if an agent recommended a solicitor that this should disqualify them automatically. Notwithstanding the rather emotive language used, it is clear that solicitors must declare any fees paid to agents to their clients.
The original article is shown here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-1247684/Sellers-misled-agents-backhanders.html
and the latest article is included here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-1252890/MARKET-WATCH-Is-estate-agent-taking-bribes-lawyer.html
Naturally we remain committed to questioning the ethics of referral fees and will continue to offer our conveyancing and Home Information Pack service to clients without such fees.
Commercial Energy Performance Certificates
A trading standards officer visited one of our clients last week and questioned them as to why the reference number on the recommendation report for the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) was different from the certificate itself. This is because commercial EPCs are produced in two separate reports, rather than the single report in the residential version. Unfortunately the reference number is not cross-referenced in both, with the recommendation report only referring to the certificate but not vice versa. As the trading standards officer requested that both the certificate and recommendation report should be included with the property particulars, (we do not agree that this is a requirement under the law) they questioned the validity of the report because of the difference in numbering, which is not the case.
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