With far-reaching reforms of conveyancing and other aspects of house buying high on the government’s agenda, a trade body has revealed that it’s to restructure to become more PropTech focussed. The Council of Property Search Organisations, CoPSO, says it’s embarked on “an all-encompassing strategic review” following the recent agreement by there Law Society of the Search Code - an industry kitemark for searches in the property industry. “In a fast-changing world and following the Law Society recognition of the Search Code the timing is perfect for us to undertake a grass roots review of CoPSO’s role in an increasingly digital home buying marketplace” explains James Sherwood-Rogers, the organisation’s chairman. “In many ways CoPSO and its members have been the pioneers in what is now progressively called PropTech and are uniquely placed to drive forward the PropTech agenda to increase efficiency, shrink transaction times and reduce costs in the home buying and selling process” he continues. In recent days conveyancing has been put in a central position in the government’s agenda for house buying reform. Some 80 per cent of searches are now completed within 10 working days according to housing minister Heather Wheeler, following government pressure on local authorities last year. At the same time HM Land Registry is continuing with its Local Land Charges digitisation programme, which aims to get 26 councils on faster digital searches in the short term. Earlier this month the Isles of Scilly council became the fifth authority to switch from council Local Land Charges to digital searches handled by the Registry. There are no dates set for other councils to come across during this phase of the digitisation programme, but they are likely to come on stream during 2019. They include Blackburn, Carlisle, East Lindsay, the London boroughs of Harrow and Lambeth, Milton Keynes, North West Leicestershire, Norwich, Peterborough, Sefton, St Helens, Stevenage, Thameside, Thanet, Walsall and Watford.
The Council of Property Search Organisations ( plc ) has said it will engage in a bid to move forward with the digital transformation of the property sector , plc , which seeks to increase transparency while reducing property transaction times and costs . CoPSO 's move follows the Law Society 's adoption of the Search Code industry kitemark .