The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC)
Committee has today launched an inquiry on improving the
home buying and selling process in England.
The cross-party inquiry will examine the transaction process, the
information available to buyers, and the role of conveyancers and
estate agents.
, Chair of the Levelling Up,
Housing and Communities Committee, said: “The process of
buying and selling a home in England is often stressful for those
involved. Indeed, despite there being around two million
households who successfully buy or sell their home each year,
consumers often find the process is not as efficient, effective,
or as consumer-friendly as it could be.
“As part of this inquiry, we will look at the chief obstacles to
improving the process of buying and selling a home. We will be
keen to examine issues such as the time taken to complete a
transaction and challenges in finding the right information.
Topics such as a lack of transparency around conveyancing
services, the payment of ‘referral fees’, and the weak regulation
of estate agents will also be on our agenda in this inquiry”.
The key questions for the Committee inquiry are included in the
full terms of reference (which are listed further below).
Evidence sessions for this short inquiry are likely to begin in
late April 2024. The Committee are likely to question consumer,
professional and industry bodies, and to conclude with questions
to the Department for Levelling Up, Communities, and Housing
Minister.
Improving the home buying and selling process – inquiry
terms of reference
The Committee welcomes written
evidence on the terms of reference outlined below.
The closing date for submissions is Thursday 18
April ahead of an expected evidence session in April.
- How efficient or effective is the existing process for buying
and selling homes? How could this be improved?
- How could the consumer experience be improved during the
process for buying and selling homes?
- Is the reliance on voluntary initiatives adequate to improve
the buying and selling process, or should improvements be made
mandatory through legislation?
The Transaction Process:
- What is the impact of issues in the transaction process, such
as gazumping or gazundering, and how could they be remedied?
- Would greater use of reservation agreements improve the
transaction process?
- What prevents reservation agreements being more widely used?
Why has a short, standardised reservation agreement not been
developed, as promised by the then Government in 2018?
Information Provision:
- Do buyers have the right information available at the right
time during transactions?
- What effect would it have on the transaction process if
sellers were required to provided set information about a
property when it was marketed?
- How much data associated with housing transactions still
needs to be digitised and how can the digitisation process be
accelerated or prioritised?
- What challenges are there to digitisation or providing
information at listing?
Conveyancers:
- Do consumers have sufficient information to determine which
conveyancer to use? How could information provision on
conveyancing be improved?
- What effect would a mandatory professional qualification for
estate agents have?
- Should there be a single, legally enforceable Code of
Practice for property agents?
- What impact does the practice of referral fees have, and how
would a review, standardisation of practice, or ban affect
transactions and consumers?
