Conveyancing market stakeholders produce industry guidance for firms during Coronavirus crisis

30^th March 2020

The Society of Licensed Conveyancers] (SLC) today endorsed industry-wide guidance to conveyancing firms advising clients on house moves during the Coronavirus crisis.

The guidance has been prepared by a group which includes the SLC, The Law Society, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, Bold Legal Group and the Conveyancing Association (CA), and has the support of Government departments including HM Land Registry.

Its primary purpose is to help conveyancers assist clients and comply with the latest Government Regulations and Guidance on home moving, in particular:

• Home buyers and renters should, where possible, delay moving to a new house while measures are in place to fight Coronavirus and in accordance with Government guidance.
• If the client has already exchanged contracts, and the property is currently occupied, then all parties should work together to agree a delay or another way to resolve this matter.
• If moving is unavoidable for contractual reasons and the parties are unable to reach an agreement to delay, people must follow advice on staying away from others to minimise the spread of the virus.

This additional Guidance covers four key areas:

1. Amending existing contracts.
2. Advice for clients who have already exchanged contracts.
3. Advice for clients who have not yet exchanged contracts.
4. Advice for clients who have to move during the current restrictive period.

In terms of amending existing contracts, the stakeholder group has worked together and agreed a draft clause and the process for firms to follow when varying a completion date.

The guidance sets out the need for conveyancers to exchange a written agreement to alter the existing contract, to e-sign or authorise the conveyancer to sign on the client’s behalf, to formally exchange documents and to ensure clients are fully advised in accordance with their own circumstances. It also outlines how firms might wish to consider issues that may arise around the client’s mortgage, searches and any additional costs that might be involved.

It also urges firms to treat every case on an individual basis and any clauses or processes recommended by the firm should be amended according to the individual needs of the client.

Within the document there is also specific advice that conveyancing firms can offer to clients who have exchanged, have not exchanged, or for those who have to move during the current restrictive period.

Val Holmes, SLC Chairperson, said:

“In these difficult times it is important that Conveyancers are in a position to serve their clients individual needs, and I am really pleased that all the professional and trade bodies and groups should come together to issue single and consistent guidance.”