This article first appeared on the website of the Residential Logbook Association (RLBA) of which Chimni is a founder member.
June 2022 - In the last two years digital Property Logbooks for our homes have moved from concept to reality, with almost a quarter of a million homes in the UK now having one. There is a vibrant and competitive market for Logbooks emerging, as Chimni and the other six providers represented by the Residential Logbook Association will attest.
Their impact is already being felt in the Conveyancing industry, where Logbooks are part of the wider digitisation of the sales process. Now we are beginning to ask where else can they help deliver Govt policy.
RLBA member companies including Chimni are already active in the New Build market, which is increasingly seeing digital Logbooks as a tool to help the post-sale ‘handover’ process. The obligations on housebuilders to deliver data to buyers is increasing with the post-Grenfell Safety Bill and Net Zero performance targets both affecting new properties. Property Logbooks that are integrated with certification bodies and construction portals are becoming a standard feature of this new ‘data rich’ New Build market.
Chimni's Nigel Walley says:
“As well as being a repository for the extra information that needs to be passed on at sale of a First Home, Logbooks offer some other features and functionality that will make the First Homes scheme easier to implement for Local authorities, particularly as they come to market for a second or third time. “
At the moment, Local Authorities are examining how to create individual First Homes registers to maintain the integrity of the scheme for the local authority and its local community and key workers. We believe that a solution from the RLBA could deliver a workable and interoperable national register with little cost to Local Authorities.
For a Property Logbook to be registered on the RLBA Register they have to conform to an agreed data and functionality specification. One aspect of this specification is that a Logbook should be able to flag up a special feature or function and support the notification function. When trialling this functionality RLBA member companies have enabled a ‘First Homes’ trial flag in their Logbooks enabling, amongst other things, summary reports on the number and distribution of ‘First Homes’ properties.
Nigel Walley says:
“This means that the RLBA Register, without significant extra development, could provide a central register of ‘First Homes’ properties for Local Authorities who want to outsource the challenge. The only requirement to enable this is for First Homes developers to be register an RLBA Property Logbook with each First Homes property.”
The RLBA Register will be integrated with Estate Agent and Conveyancer systems in such a way that an alert could be sent to the Local Authority when material upfront information for sale is generated directly from the Logbook. In addition, Property Logbooks created to support the First Homes Scheme will have a flag; an alert could be sent in cases where any inbound data fields from a prospective seller match an existing Logbook, irrespective of whether upfront information was generated.
In this way, the RLBA Register will be able to notify participating Local Authorities at the very moment a First Homes property is marketed for resale and create a day “one” trigger to help ensure the specific terms, discounts and eligibility requirements set by the Local Authority are adhered to.
There is also no system by which a Local Authority can monitor if owners and agents are properly marketing a property so that it doesn’t fall out of the 3-month sale window agreed for First Homes properties. The RLBA Register offers the ability to address these issues, flagging a property’s first presence on websites and enabling a council to monitor the sales process and timeline to ensure it is free from any sales ruses which may compromise the raison d’etre of the scheme.
To require developers to deliver digital Property Logbooks to buyers of new homes, is not imposing new cost or admin on them. They already have to incur the cost and admin of collating their handover packs. Registering Logbooks as part of a First Homes sale will merely nudge them along the path towards digitisation. But for Local Authorities working on First Homes developments, a system of monitoring and reporting delivered by Property Logbooks could be transformational and help avoid the set up and implementation costs of each one building and maintaining its own First Homes register. A scenario which would lead to huge time delay and expense, and the potential for 355 siloed Registers across England and Wales.
For more information on Property Logbooks Register and our work with First Homes please email:
nigel.walley@chimni.com.
