The Conveyancing Association (CA) has announced its support for a cross-industry guide on reopening the housing market to help enable people to move home safely.

The guide has been developed collaboratively by the residential sector and professional organisations’ representatives.

The trade body for the conveyancing industry suggested the guide, titled Re-Opening the Home Moving Market Safely, is setting out in detail how home moves can take place while still fully complying with social distancing measures and public health guidance.

The guide, which focuses on physical contact points and times when professionals would need to enter private residential properties, states that ideally, one professional and two adults maximum can take part in a physical viewing of a property – and that these should take place outside of commute times.

The CA indicated the information is relevant to property agents, mortgage advisers, property managers, property lawyers, conveyancers, surveyors, energy assessors and home removal, as well as associated professionals such as contractors involved in property development, management, and the home moving processes in the UK.
 
The contents have been shared with the Government, industry regulators and public health authorities, and the CA added that as the situation is constantly evolving, information will be updated regularly.

Chair of the CA, Paul Smee, commented: “This practical guide for all property professionals involved in the home moving process supplements and builds on the Government’s own guidance published earlier today.

“Our key aim in contributing to this is to ensure that home moves can proceed in a safe manner and that industry professionals are aware of their responsibilities and the actions they should be taking in order to make sure this happens.

“The CA is pleased to see the housing market in England being opened up, but are aware that this is not the case yet in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, and there will be ongoing worries about this and the safety of the process.

“This guide is designed to alleviate a number of those concerns and to spell out that safety of both professionals and consumers should be at the heart of everything we do in order to ensure we can move people into their new homes.”

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