The project will enable consumers to use one digital identity when buying or selling a home and share this with other relying parties such as estate agents, conveyancers, mortgage intermediaries and mortgage lenders.
The Law Society, CLC, SRA, CILEx Regulation, NAEA Propertymark, Guild of Property Professionals, RICS and National Trading Standard all support the project.
It aims to create a centrally agreed framework, aligned to DCMS policy objectives and HMLR guidelines, against which all processes and providers would be accredited, to provide greater surety of data quality and reliance.
The project is expected to run for six months and started on the 2 November 2020.
It will involve a succession of working groups made up of regulators, government, financial services sector, identity providers and solicitors and estate agents.
The first output is expected in April 2021 as a draft scheme supported with a set of operation manuals for the industry to adopt and work towards improving the home buying and selling process.
Stuart Young, managing director of Etive, said: “Currently a seller’s and buyer’s identity is verified up to five times by the different relying parties.
“Conveyancers, estate agents, mortgage intermediaries and financial services are regulated by different entities with various levels of oversight and compliance which can cause conflicting guidelines on identity verification.”
Iain McKenzie, chief executive of The Guild of Property Professionals, added: “Digital communication and cohesion is long overdue between the stakeholders involved in the moving process.
“Finding ways to reduce the time it takes for a property transaction to take place will be highly beneficial to both the industry and of course our customers who are eager to move into their new property as quickly as possible.”
