When it comes to real estate document management, the safety and security of documents containing customers’ personal information is of the utmost importance.
Estate agents have a huge responsibility to ensure the correct management of records relating to the property transactions that they oversee. They must comply with a number of regulations and legal obligations pertaining to how different types of contracts and agreements are stored.
Your real estate record keeping requirements
The Property Ombudsman (TPO) has published Codes of Practice which stipulate that, by law, estate agents must maintain clear and full written records of transactions for a period of six years. This can result in large piles of paperwork including title deeds, inspection documents, offers, contracts, addendums, closing documents, photographs, listings, appraisals reports, escrow papers, and many more.
Since these transactions involve the transfer of real estate ownership or tenancy, they are hugely valuable. As such, there is an even greater imperative to ensure that records are properly managed and kept secure. What’s more, poor real estate document management can lead to non-compliance with key legislation such as the Data Protection Act 1998.
The risks of poor real estate records management
However, non-compliance – and its penalties – is not the only risk. Bad management can leave documents vulnerable to theft, be they paper documents or electronic files. And should a customer’ sensitive information be lost or compromised, it could cause significant damage to the company’s reputation.
Without easy access to securely stored documents, real estate firms may be unable to produce the correct documentation on time in the event of a property dispute. Growing piles of documents reduce physical office space and cause general disorganisation which, in turn, wastes time and creates unnecessary labour costs.
Once a property transaction has been successfully processed, most documents won’t need to be accessed any time soon. This means there’s no real need for estate agents to keep them on-site. However, in the event of any disputes over a property, all the documents pertaining to the transaction need to be easily accessible.
The challenge, therefore, lies with developing a document retention strategy that combines safe storage with accessibility.
Why Access Records Management?
At Access Records Management, we offer an end-to-end real estate document management and storage service. This covers collection, storage, retrieval and couriering – as well as document scanning to create electronic copies, and secure shredding of records where required. It also includes ‘dead file’ or archive storage for files that are not needed for very long periods of time.
Our solutions are very cost effective and versatile. We can design a bespoke plan to suit any company’s unique document storage needs. We take pride in our secure document storage facilities which are protected against flooding, fire and break-ins. Locked data rooms are also available for particularly sensitive documents.
The team at Access Records Management is made up of people with many years of experience in records management. They can help estate agents understand their real estate record keeping requirements as defined by UK law, as well as other regulations enforced by organisations such as TPO.
We also offer exceptional customer service balanced with reasonable document management pricing. This is especially important for smaller estate agents who may feel they do not have the financial resources to employ a records management service. Our base in North London means that we are particularly well positioned to serve hundreds of estate agents throughout London – a very lucrative area for property investment in itself.
Benefits of real estate document management
When important documents are safely stored, estate agents feel reassured that both customer and company information is protected. This frees up office space for other uses and reduces the administrative burden and labour costs of managing on-site document storage.
Estate agents are less likely to lose important documents which protects the company’s overall reputation and helps build trust. The ability to react quickly to unexpected situations in which records may be required at short notice helps provide a far better customer experience.
Real estate document management solutions for London
At Access Records Management, we help hundreds of different institutions – both large and small – manage their records safely. We work with a variety of clients across the commercial, public and non-profit sectors.
Our team of experts is well-positioned to handle the requirements of estate agents of all shapes and sizes. We also have over 40 years of combined experience working with companies in other document-heavy sectors such as financial services, healthcare, and architecture.
We have two accreditations that we are extremely proud of. One, we have been fully certificated to the ISO:9001 standard and two, we are the sole supplier of document management storage services to members of the Charities Buying Group.
To discuss your real estate document management needs, contact one of our specialists today.