The CEO of national law firm Muve, David Jabbari, has heralded a “new and very significant” era in digital conveyancing as his firm this week became the first law firm in the UK to complete a digital remortgage transaction on the ground-breaking PEXA platform.
The transaction, which took place at approximately 11am on September 7th, leveraged PEXA’s newly developed exchange platform and its payment scheme, PEXA Pay, to expedite the current laborious registration and financial settlement process, bringing same-day remortgaging a step closer. The remortgage was undertaken by Hinckley & Rugby Building Society.
PEXA, the fintech behind the world’s first digital property exchange process, sees the transaction as an important milestone in its mission to streamline the property remortgage and completion process. Using the PEXA platform, Muve and Hinckley & Rugby Building Society were able to orchestrate financial settlement directly from the incoming lender’s account, and could seamlessly collaborate to lodge the application for registration with HM Land Registry.
For Jabbari, who has a long track record of innovation in the legal sector, the transaction “marks an important milestone for the digitisation of property settlement in the UK, simplifying and speeding up the conveyancing process for consumers and industry”.
Jabbari commented: “This milestone transaction represents months of hard work between Muve, PEXA and Hinckley & Rugby Building Society to align systems and achieve business readiness.”
“We at Muve are delighted to be partnering with PEXA at the very start of their journey into the UK conveyancing market. The PEXA platform has the technological and financial sophistication to change how conveyancing transactions are settled and registered in the UK.“
James Bawa, PEXA UK Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Our mission is to transform the property market for consumers, lenders and conveyancers. The completion of the UK’s first digitised remortgage transaction marks a major milestone in this journey, and acts as a tangible proof of concept for the wider industry.”
Jabbari, who has written on the “false promises” of digital conveyancing in the past few years, and has been critical of the pace of change at the Land Registry, feels that we may now be moving into a very different era. He comments:
“After all the false starts and exaggerated claims made about digital conveyancing in the past decade, we can now chart a very clear road map to the digitisation of key elements of the conveyancing process, especially around financial settlement and registration.”
“Our mission when we founded Muve six years ago, bringing tech and managerial skills from the larger City law firms, was to be at the forefront of change in the conveyancing process. We have grown to the point where we will be a Top 5 by volume conveyancing firm for residential transactions by late 2023, and tech is a significant part of our mission.”
“Improving the conveyancing process is vital in a market where interest rates are rising and transactions slowing, and where financial outcomes for customers will be significantly impacted by delays in the transaction process. I am pleased that we are delivering today the sort of innovation that some claim is many years down the track.”
