Adoption of Legal Tech has seen 40% of firms benefiting from cheaper PII
SDLT Compass has written a blog on the subject of adoption of Legal Tech has seen 40% of firms benefiting from cheaper PII.
After nearly twenty years of amendments, reliefs, exemptions and new elements being added to it, the U.K.’s SDLT legislation is one of the most tinkered with parts of the statute book today. That being the case, you’d be forgiven for thinking the opposite given the attitude of many law firms towards SDLT over the years.
All too often, firms in the conveyancing sphere who SDLT is not a big deal, something they have under control with their current processes. In our experience, they are very wrong.
Generally, when a firm starts seeing claims from clients who believe they’ve missed a particular relief or exemption on their chase, and want compensation for money missed out on, that’s when they start to take these matters far more seriously.
These claims, for missed reliefs like Mixed Use relief and Multiple Dwellings Relief, are increasingly commonplace. With the Higher Rate on Additional Dwellings, aka the 3% surcharge, which itself has caused a lot of confusion, and the new non-U.K. resident surcharge, it’s difficult to imagine that more claims in more areas won’t follow.
It won’t have escaped firms’ notice that PII premiums are currently rising by eye-watering margins. In the last quarter of 2021, premiums rose an average of 30%, with industry experts saying that they don’t see any significant drops coming to the industry anytime soon. Rises like this have seen the many small to medium-sized firms either being absorbed into larger networks or simply calling it a day altogether.
However, a recent legaltech panel discussion hosted by Women in Will offered some hope for firms looking at ways to lower their PII premiums, as well as making improvements in other areas.
Rob Hosier, a board member of the U.K. Legal Technology Association, said that in their latest review:
“On PII renewals, 30-40% of firms got a discount because of the tech they are using.”
Pippa Shepherd, Head of Customer Engagement at Arken.legal, went on to elaborate:
“The benefits of tech are multi-fold. When we’re looking at fee earners and how many hours you can bill, freeing up time by speeding up admin using tech can allow you to get more out of your time, and reduce need for administrative resources.”
SDLT Compass is a member of the UKLTA, and represents just such a resource. Complex cases where the SDLT position is unclear which would currently require additional time on a fee earner’s part can now be simply outsourced to Compass systems.
Waiting weeks for answers from HMRC will be a thing of the past. Trawling through the very latest relevant case law on the definition of a dwelling will be a distant memory. Compass provides a simple, focused process which meshes seamlessly with existing systems and gets you the right answer quickly and efficiently, freeing up fee earner time and, more importantly, reducing the risks to which your firm could be exposed.
In turn, this can lead to reduced PII premiums, as insurers see a firm actively engaged in tech which both increases your firm’s efficiency and reduces the risk of one of the current highest sources of claims in the U.K. property marketplace. That’s the kind of maths which just makes sense.
Kindly shared by SDLT Compass
Main photo courtesy of Pixabay
