Change is in the air

At the recent Evening Standard Homebuyers Show at Olympia, a government ministerre-confirmed the government's intention that legislation will be introduced at the beginning of the next Parliament to change the way conveyancing is done.

By then, of course, marketing pressures will have created a different environment anyway.

Involved in all of this is the opportunity of the massive changes that will be brought about through e-commerce.

Already communication is regularly dealt with electronically, at least between my firm and clients.

Unfortunately, not very much electronic communication takes place between law firms which still insist on writing letters and putting them in the post.Stop and think for a moment - what will be the point of having high street estate agency outlets if property details are available on the television at home? Obviously, a static site would be of little use unless you could do something with it.

Therefore, the sites that are being created by major organisations will enable all manner of information to be extracted about a property and the area in which it is situated.That information will also include details of the legal title to that property, and it makes sense that that information is guaranteed by insurance.

Mortgages must be available on-line, and the new and aggressive lenders are already making this happen.One of the difficulties with the Bristol pilot is that the sellers' packs that are being prepared can be easily put together in a week to ten days, but the mortgage offer that the buyer needs is still taking four to six weeks.

Pretty soon, the lending industry will realise that it is being accused of holding up the whole sale/purchase process.By the end of the summer, there will be some major Web sites in existence.

By the beginning of the summer, we shall know what is happening to the National Land Information Service and the impact that the new change of ownership for that organisation is likely to have, depending upon who the successful bidders are for that service.

By the end of the year, we shall see dematerialisation and, perhaps by the end of next year, the end of the transfer deed and its replacement by the authority to electronically change the proprietor register.What is imperative to understand is that the momentum for change is now beyond the point when it can be stopped and the organisations involved in the house sale process, which are leading the change, will be the recipients of all the benefits.Brian J Marson, Marsons, Bromley, Kent