Estate agents licensing scheme launched
Following the Law Society new conveyancing kite mark and a review by RICS of its quality enforcement The National Association of Estate Agents has created a licensing scheme for agents. A licensed estate agency branch means consumers are guaranteed that at least one agent within that branch is qualified in residential property sales, either through […]
Momentum gathers as eight companies join the Conveyancing Association
The Conveyancing Association (CA) is a not for profit trade association whose objectives are to improve the experience for the home moving public, to encourage greater collaborative working, to take a fresh and innovative approach, and to raise standards. With “Tesco Law”, dabbling conveyancers causing chaos, angry lenders and a continuing recession there does appear […]
Flood impact grows 200% in a decade are you conducting specific flood searches?
We can all picture the images in Cumbria, Cornwall and Sheffield in recent years when flooding has hit the headlines but, whilst it is not a matter of legal right or obligation, has this altered your conveyancing practices? If you were buying a house would you want to know about flood risk and who would […]
Registers of Scotland increase Scottish registration fees dramatically
Following a recent consultation exercise the Fees in the Registers of Scotland Amendment Order 2010 has been signed by the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism and has been submitted to the Scottish Parliament. The new fees will come into force on 10 January 2011 The fees are increasing from between 20% and 100%. For […]
Legal Aid reforms challenge client account interest
The Ministry of Justice has issued a consultation paper called “Proposals for Reform of Legal Aid in England and Wales”. The consultation proposes two potential changes to use money held on client account to fund Legal Aid. This is a serious threat because even though conveyancers are not getting the interest that they did it […]
Purchase mortgage approvals down in October
The Bank of England have released their monthly statistical report showing that purchase mortgage approvals for October are down slightly, 47,185, compared with September, 47,369. This makes the approval rates for October lower than the previous six-month average of 48,503. On the other hand approvals for remortgages were up slightly to 29,275 compared with September’s […]
Registrations resilient despite market conditions
The NHBC today reports that the number of new homes registered in October was 10,028 – a slight rise on September’s registration levels (9,033). Numbers have remained consistently between 9,000 and 11,000 since April this year. Imtiaz Farookhi, chief executive of NHBC, said: "We have been slightly surprised by the resilience of registration volumes, given […]