Estate Agents have turned to iamproperty movebutler for support in staying compliant with the new upfront Material Information rules, in a bid to relieve the growing financial burden on consumers.
While consumers have revealed they are prepared to pay for Material Information, interest rates’ sharp rise to 1.25% is increasing the need to minimise home-moving costs, and fall throughs due to late disclosure of Material Information can have huge financial consequences.
As such, consumers are looking to Estate Agents for the peace of mind their transactions are as secure as possible, and agents are turning to iamproperty movebutler; an agile modular system that helps them automate the client onboarding process and make the provision of Material Information as streamlined as possible – avoiding any nasty surprises.
movebutler, which is constantly being developed to help agents keep up to date with the latest legislative requirements in the property industry, is shouldering the burden for agents to gather more information upfront to meet Part A of the new requirements around the upfront disclosure of material facts, as announced by National Trading Standards.
One of the new features is the inclusion of Title Insight Reports. These reports take key information from the Title Register and present it in a simple summary view - helping agents to identify at a glance any potential issues that might delay marketing a property or agreeing a sale. Notes against each indicator briefly explain and advise on any action the agent or their client may need to take to avoid delay further down the line. The official copy can also be downloaded if more information is needed.
Clients are also asked to complete a Disclosure of Material Facts form, which includes gathering information that is always considered material for all properties regardless of location or outcome. This information generally includes unavoidable costs that will be incurred by the occupier regardless of the use of the property, such as Council tax bands and ground rent charges. Agents can track the progress of their clients completing this and send them reminder prompts. Once completed, movebutler generates a PDF of this information to be stored against the transaction.
For clients who choose to instruct a conveyancer from movebutler’s core panel, they will be prompted to fill in additional information for the legal process. Both the Disclosure of Material Facts form and this additional information for the legal process using the BASPI format are automatically sent to the conveyancer. With conveyancing timelines now averaging 150 days according to Rightmove, this automation is vital in speeding up the conveyancing process. It enables information to be provided upfront for the conveyancer’s review, saving the solicitor’s admin time on sharing and waiting for it to be completed.
Clients can complete these forms digitally from a new ‘to-do’ area in their movebutler dashboard once they have completed the onboarding process. Progress is automatically saved so they can come back to it any time. movebutler’s Onboarding Specialists can support in prompting and following up on incomplete forms, saving agents’ time.
Ben Ridgway, Managing Director of iamproperty, explained: “We have worked closely with our Partner Agents to understand exactly what they need from movebutler as a digital platform that can help them to stay compliant and provide a better service for their clients. The requirements demanded of Estate Agents evolve quickly, which is why we designed movebutler to help keep them ahead with new modules and updates added regularly.”
He continued: “The movebutler updates will continue in line with the next stages of the upfront Material Information rules. NTS Part B applies mainly to utilities – and similar - where non-standard features which would affect someone’s decision to look any further at a property. Our Disclosure of Material Facts form for vendors captures a lot of this already, ahead of Part B, and our software has been developed in such a way that it will be easy and quick to adapt this to meet upfront Material Information requirements once more guidance is released.
“Through our iamproperty movebutler platform, we’re now supporting over 1,200 Estate Agency branches to onboard their clients from an AML perspective, and the launch of our enhanced material facts functionality will help agents comply with all parts of the new rules. It is up and running to support agents with Part A and will be updated as developments to parts B and C are released, helping agents stay compliant and lighten their admin load. We’ve had some great feedback so far.”
While the initial announcement from NTSLEAT left agents wondering how the new rules would impact their already restricted time and budgets, studies have since shown that consumers are willing to pay for upfront material information themselves. The Conveyancing Association revealed that 98 per cent of consumers surveyed thought upfront information was a good idea. Of these respondents, 96 per cent were property-owning sellers, who are prepared to pay for more information upfront, reassuring Estate Agents that they can pass on additional costs to their clients in goodwill.
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