Rules for Entry & Voting
Entries close 29th June 2018
Voting closes 31st AUGUST 2018
Shortlist published w/c 3rd September 2018
2nd Annual ESTAS Conveyancer Awards Friday 19th October 2018
Conditions of Entry
- All conveyancing firms in the UK can enter.
- Firms who wish to enter must have been trading on or before 1st January 2017.
- Firms/branches operating in a specific geographical area can enter the Regional Conveyancer Category.
- Firms with 2 to 5 branches can choose to enter the Best Local Group (min. entry 2 branches)
- Firms with 6 to 20 branches can choose to enter the Best Regional Group (min. entry 6 branches)
- Firms who offer a national service can enter the National Conveyancer Category.
Conditions for Voting
- All clients you have completed the conveyancing for a residential sale, purchase, remortgage or equity release from 1st September 2017 up to 31st August 2018 are eligible to rate you.
- Clients may only vote once for each completion by submitting our online survey.
- Members of staff AND ex staff may not complete a survey for the same firm.
- New members of staff (who have accepted a position at the firm but not yet started) who are a client of the firm may NOT complete a survey.
- Immediate relatives of staff (spouse, partner, parents or children) are not allowed to complete the survey of behalf of the firm that the relative works for.
Conditions for Completing Questionnaires
- Surveys must be completed by 31st August 2018 by 12 noon.
- Surveys are CONFIDENTIAL and therefore must be completed by the client NOT by a staff member at the conveyancing firm on their behalf.
- Clients must not be influenced by the conveyancing firm while completing the survey.
- Surveys may not be completed over the phone by staff on behalf of clients.
- Surveys cannot be completed by clients in branch (our voting system tracks IP addresses).
- Surveys completed without valid contact details may be deleted.
Scoring
- Local/regional firms taking part must have a minimum of 15 surveys completed by clients for each branch taking part.
- National firms taking part must have a minimum of 100 surveys completed by clients.
- The FINAL SCORE for each firm will be calculated by taking the Average % Score and weighting this by the % Bonus achieved – determined by the total votes received.
The ESTAS Group reserve the right to disqualify any firm who does not abide by the above rules.
Rules for Suppliers
- Only suppliers who’s core business is working for the conveyancing industry may enter the competition.
- Suppliers must have been trading on or before 31st January 2017.
- Only clients who have worked with the supplier for a minimum of 2 months in 2018 can vote.
- Clients may only vote once (One vote per branch).
- Surveys must be completed by 12 noon on 31st August 2018.
- Suppliers must receive a minimum of 50 surfveys completed to be eligible for the shortlist phase.
- Telephone votes are not permitted.
- Supplier devices (computers, tablets or phones) CANNOT be used to submit a survey by a client.
- Members of staff from a supplier firm taking part in the competition, who use the same supplier services, cannot vote.
- A vote audit will take place after voting has closed.
- During the vote audit spot checks on voters will be made. If contact details are not valid a firm may be disqualified.
The ESTAS Group Ltd reserve the right to disqualify any supplier who does not abide by the above rules.
The vote audit process will apply to agents, suppliers, advisers & conveyancers as follows;
- Each firm taking part must inform us of any duplicate votes or rogue votes (names that are not recognisable as one of your clients).
- Random auditing will take place throughout the competition and during August 2018.
- Any votes without a valid phone number may be deleted.
- If phone numbers are unobtainable or related to the firm in question you may be disqualified.
- Company devices (computers, tablets or phones) CANNOT be used to submit a survey by a client.
The score formula for agents, suppliers, advisers & conveyancers will be as follows;
The FINAL SCORE for each firm will be calculated by taking the Average % Score and weighting this by the % Bonus achieved – determined by the total votes received. A % bonus will be added for every vote completed over the minimum votes required for a particular category.
The Average % Score is the score which can be viewed by each firm on their secure login area via our website. This score is calculated from the ratings each client gives when completing the survey. The % Bonus is added after the vote audit period and this will determine the FINAL SCORE for each firm.
NB. If you are unable to attend the awards ceremony this will NOT impact on the results, however if you do win an award and are not at the ceremony to collect your trophy an administration charge of £299 + vat (per trophy) will apply to obtain your award/trophy and the winners marketing pack.