Last week we reported on how the future of the seller's pack has been cast in doubt by the failure of the Homes Bill to will receive Royal Assent before the dissolution of Parliament. This week, we take a look at a solution already being implemented by ParTake Services Ltd, a Winchester-based company that provides services to estate agents. Could this be a viable long term solution to the seller's pack problem?

The product in question goes by the trademark of SecureSale. Partake claims that it really is a revolutionary new product and reckon that it answers all of the criticisms levelled at the existing seller's pack proposals.

In current practice, once an offer on a property has been accepted subject to contract, and the respective solicitors notified, the buyer's solicitor gets busy gathering the title deeds, local searches and any other documentation needed to validate the sale. In the meantime, the mortgage lenders will be carrying out their own investigations, generally including a survey of the property, to ensure that the property represents a satisfactory risk for lending.

As a result of these investigations, buyers frequently wish to re-negotiate the price previously agreed with the seller, and if agreement cannot be reached at this point, the sale may well collapse. In 1998-99 almost one third of all UK house purchases were abandoned at this stage by either the buyer or the seller because a revised price could not be agreed. Further problems can be caused by the time delay between offer and acceptance and exchange of contracts and the fact that in a rising market, this period can see the value of a property change quite markedly.

The philosophy behind the seller's pack is to provide the necessary search and survey documentation at the outset, thereby speeding up the process and reducing the time-delay between offer, acceptance, and exchange of contracts. This reduced time-frame should therefore reduce the opportunities for gazumping.

It is estimated that abandoned transactions cost both the public and the estate agency industry over £500 million pounds every year. It is in an attempt to curb this shocking waste of resources, that ParTake have developed SecureSale.

SecureSale does two main things:

• Provides all the relevant seller's pack information at a price that is considerably lower than that estimate by the government.
• Forms a legally binding contract once offer and acceptance has been reached, which reduces the opportunity for either party to withdraw from the agreement on a whim.

Prior to going on the market, the SecureSale package assists in providing the following information, to be readily available to serious buyers:

• Full property description
• An independently-provided Home Buyers Survey Report
• A copy of the title deeds
• Land Registry and Local Authority Searches
• Replies to standard enquiries
• Copies of guarantees, warranties, planning permissions, etc.

Copy of the draft contract And if your property is leasehold, then the following will also be included:-

• A copy of the lease
• Management accounts and receipts
• Service charge information and receipts

SecureSale also includes indemnity insurance to enable either party to recover their costs, in the event that prior to exchange of contracts, some unforeseen situation totally outside their control, forces them to withdraw from the transaction.

When a buyer chooses to make an offer to purchase a SecureSale property, he or she must pay £125 for the SecureSale pack.

The buyer's mortgage application proceedings can begin immediately, and the SecureSale information may also be transmitted digitally to the buyer's chosen lender, thereby expediting that process too. The purchase then proceeds in the normal way, but without many of the delays normally inherent in the collection and distribution of information.

When a suitable mortgage offer is finally available, the purchaser is then in a position to make a formal offer for the property. Once that offer has been accepted by the seller and the contacts signed, it becomes legally binding on both parties - equivalent to the traditional exchange of contracts.

At completion the purchaser then pays for the survey, which was not commissioned by the seller, but independently on behalf of a then unknown buyer. This survey also includes indemnity insurance, which covers the purchaser in the unlikely event that some structural problem is identified subsequent to completion.

Estate agents using SecureSale are apparently very enthusiastic, as the time savings for them are immense. Much less time and resources will be wasted on buyers who aren't all that serious. A quicker transaction time means a faster turnaround of property sales and more potential for commission.

Serious buyers should also be enthusiastic, because they know that provided they get their mortgage offer, they've purchased a home with almost no chance of being gazumped at the last minute. Sellers will no longer be able to withdraw from a transaction prior to exchange, either on a whim, or in the face of a better offer.

Sellers in turn are equally in favour, as they know they have a serious buyer who fully intends to complete the transaction. Furthermore, the practice buyers offering on multiple properties and then not proceeding further, in the hope that one vendor will ultimately be driven to desperation by the delay and finally accept a very low offer, would stop instantly.

The cost to the seller of the SecureSale package is only £125 (including VAT). On top of this is the £125 charged to the buyer, as well as the cost of the survey. Even so, all in all the total cost should fall well short of the £700 that is the estimated average cost of the seller's pack in the government scheme. And that's the bottom line really - the combination of increased speed and costs savings is sure to be a winning one.