Best in conveyancing recognised

Best in conveyancing recognised

Judged by a panel of property professionals, the Sunday Times Conveyancer of the Year Awards announced its winners for 2016.

Chaired by the Property Ombudsman and with the support of the NAEA and NFOPP, conveyancers are considered using various methods including telephone interviews and mystery shopping assignments. The judges then come together and propose their recommendations alongside the panel who vote on the various winners in regional, individual, specialist and the overall categories.

This year, the award for the Best UK Estate Agency Conveyancer went to AVRillo Solicitors. The Enfield-based firm also won two further awards including Best Small Conveyancer. The judges commented:

“The partners were estate agents before they qualified as conveyancers so they understand the best of both worlds. They use the dynamics of an estate agency environment to communicate with the estate agents – they literally speak the same language. They also understand the moving process from both the customer side and the legal side and are well able to merge the two to great success.”

The judges also highlighted how a technology investment has enabled the firm to “shave three weeks off the average conveyancing time through the bespoke CMS which mirrors the way estate agents work.”

Conveyancer at the firm, Antonio Piccirillo, also won an award for Best Individual Conveyancer. Having won in the past, the judge commented on the reasons why he was their choice this year:

“His knowledge and experience, particularly of London leaseholds is second to none, and the abortive rate at A.V.Rillo is extremely low. Tony also enjoys a personal high net promoter score. As an ex-estate agent, he has a real understanding of how to work with estate agents and get the best out of the relationship. He keeps the common goal in mind at all times – get the client moved.”

Winning silver in the Best Small Conveyancer category was The Partnership. Based in Guildford, the firm is CLC approved and is also a provider of SRA training. The judges stated:

“The Partnership is an exceptional conveyancer that operates a fixed-price transaction model. The service is both consistent and transparent which is vital from a compliance point of view.

“They run weekly training sessions in person and everyone has access to regular ‘soundbite’ videos where members of the team address the staff on key areas of practice. These are uploaded onto the intranet so can be accessed at any time. Claims Reviews look at complaints and identify the issues to learn from them: there is a culture of development and support rather than blame, which is a commendable approach.”

The Large Conveyancer of the Year award was received by My Home Move, one of the UK’s largest providers of conveyancing services.

Commenting on the award was the CEO of My Home Move, Doug Crawford, who stated: “The calibre of shortlisted companies was incredibly high, and so to have been named ‘Large Conveyancer of the Year’ against such talent, is an absolute honour. “

The judges commended My Home Move on their achievement, stating that they were fully deserving winners:

“The innovation and technology is second to none: the enhanced online CMS provides an intelligent solution to allow clients to manage their own conveyancing from any device. Extended opening hours cover evenings and weekends so clients can make contact at their own convenience, and outside their usual work day. The latter is a great example of the way My Home Move combines innovative technology with careful face-to-face customer service: the personal service is only enhanced by the excellent CMS.”

In the Large Conveyancer category, silver was awarded to Howells solicitors. The judges commented on why the Welsh firm was a worthy winner of this award.

“Quality is vital at this firm and there is a strong focus on clear communication. They’ve recognised that the conveyancing process can be extremely hard to navigate, especially for first-time buyers and vulnerable clients and have therefore sought to simplify the journey wherever they can.

“The pre-sales report for agents has seen great take-up as it means they can start with the transaction much earlier than usual: this has reduced abortive rates and reduced the average time to exchange by a fortnight. There is a strong culture at Howells and the directors are proactive about building good relationships with the team. Training and development investment is exemplary and they hold regular social events to grow trust and communication between the teams.”

Georgia Owen

Georgia is the Content Executive and will be your primary contact when submitting your latest news. While studying for an LLB at the University of Liverpool, Georgia gained experience working within retail, as well as social media management. She later went on to work for a local newspaper, before starting at Today’s Conveyancer.

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