Move to exchange data

PISCES: 16 organisations to discuss property transfer plan

Solicitors working towards an industry-wide data exchange standard for residential conveyancing are gearing up to play a key role in a working group set up to look into the matter - and are calling on their peers to join the ranks.

The group, created to look into the data needed to implement the Property Information Systems Common Exchange Standard (PISCES), will include representatives from 16 organisations including the Land Registry, Council for Mortgage Lenders, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and estate agents.

PISCES is an XML-based set of definitions and rules enabling data transfer of property information between software packages.

Solicitor members - to be announced at the group's first meeting later this month - will help to consider how PISCES can be used to cut down on costs by providing a seamless information exchange.

The group's brief is to define the data necessary to record the whole transaction cycle from marketing to completion, including both mortgage and remortgage.

It will remove the risk, time and cost of re-keying data at every stage of the process.

PISCES' not-for-profit user organisation, which goes by the same name, saw City firms flocking to join last year (see [2002] Gazette, 23 May, 9).

There are currently financial transactions and legal requirements working groups.

Richard Dinning, chairman of the working group and head of Addleshaw Booth and Co's conveyancing arm, Enact, said he would like to see other firms show the same interest in the new venture.

'Solicitors who undertake conveyancing should be keenly interested in this initiative because the agreement of industry-wide data standards will enable them to deliver a better and more stress-free house-moving experience for themselves in practice, and for their clients,' he said.

LINKS: www.pisces.co.uk

Paula Rohan