Court of Appeal overturns fraud judgment
The Court of Appeal has reversed a ruling that held a solicitors’ firm liable for a loss after being tricked by a bogus practice. The High Court had ruled that Davisons Solicitors of Sycamore House, Calthorpe Road, Edgbaston had to repay £185,620 to the Nationwide Building Society, but the appeal court yesterday overturned this decision. […]
Conveyancing ‘pledges’ launched
The Conveyancing Association (CA) will today announce the launch of the industry’s first ever set of customer service commitments. The conveyancing ‘pledges’, will go above and beyond the existing regulations and accreditation schemes which all CA members have agreed to uphold. The pledges were developed with the aim of ensuring that members provide their customers […]
What’s next for conveyancing?
A number of industry experts gathered yesterday to discuss the future for conveyancing and the property transfer market. The Westminster Policy Forum saw experts from across the sector discuss innovation, regulation and standards. Former Law Society President Paul Marsh was first to speak and said that he did not feel “there would be any substantial […]
New appointment to SLC board
The Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) has announced the appointment of Lloyd Davies to its board of directors. Mr Davies is the Managing Director at Convey Law, and has specialised in residential conveyancing since qualifying as a solicitor in 1995. Throughout his career Mr Davies has been involved with various government steering committees in relation […]
Ombudsman reveals residential conveyancing complaints
The Legal Ombudsman has released a ‘thematic report’ looking at residential conveyancing complaints. Residential conveyancing accounted for around 17.5% of the 7,500 or so complaints handled by the Legal Ombudsman in 2011-2012, making it the second most complained about area of law. Adam Sampson, Chief Ombudsman said: “When consumers come to the Legal Ombudsman under […]
Numbers come up for OchreSoft
Legal workflow specialist, OchreSoft, has chalked up a pair of notable milestones for its Cloud-based IntelliworksTM platform. IntelliworksTM, which delivers content-enabled legal workflow to both conveyancing and probate teams, has exceeded the 50,000 case inception mark for the 12 months to October 2012, an 11% increase on the previous year. At the same time, October […]
No fees recruitment scheme
BCL Legal is offering a completely free recruitment services for employers and graduates. Employers can sign up and create a profile of their firm, search candidates and then invite them for interview. BCL wanted to introduce a simple to use and accessible platform to help graduates find their first job. The site has only been […]
CLC rejects Law Society calls on referral fees
The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has rejected Law Society calls for a ban on referral fees in conveyancing. The CLC issued a consultation paper last week which said they had found little evidence of significant detriment to consumers from referral fees. Some including the Law Society are calling on the Government to extend the […]
Time to act on CQS
Firms are reminded that that time is pressing to reconsider applying, if they want to remain on the Santander panel, and have not yet started the application process for CQS. Santander has been clear that, in order to remain on their panel, firms must at least have a CQS application in progress by 31st March. […]
face2face solicitors appoints ETSOS as preferred partner
Conveyancing search supermarket ETSOS has announced they have been appointed by face2face solicitors as the legal group’s preferred partner for conveyancing searches and title insurance. ETSOS enable users to review, compare and buy a broad range of conveyancing related products from different suppliers. Access is via a free-to-use ordering portal which, together with the firm’s […]
Higher Housing Targets on the Way?
Local planning authorities could be facing the prospect of housing targets even higher than those in the revoked Regional Spatial Strategies. Hearings on East Hampshire DC’s joint core strategy with the South Downs National Park Authority ended last month. However the inspector has now written to the council saying that he has serious concerns about […]
Conveyancing Summit and awards
On Thursday the first Conveyancing Summit was held by EA Live. After seminars in the morning, the Estate Agency Awards featuring awards for small and large conveyancer of the year were held. The awards were presented by double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington and Brad Marsh of sponsors Safe Move. Cunningtons took home the award for […]
First DPA fine for customer account error
For the first time the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has used its power to fine for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 in response to a customer data accuracy breach rather than data security breach. 15% of the 15,000 complaints to the ICO during the last financial year related to the way money […]
Safe-Move win National Customer Service Award
Safe-Move, the Yorkshire Water owned search business won the Best Business Award 2012 in the Serving other Businesses category at the WOW! Awards Gala Ceremony. The event, held in London on Monday 3rd December 2012, celebrates outstanding customer service. They are the only awards for customer service in the UK that are based purely on […]
First dedicated Search Industry conference held
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) held its first conference last week. The conference was specifically tailored to those working in the searches profession and attracted 50 cross-industry members. The event provided an in-depth update on the Council’s activity over the last year and a discussion on CoPSO’s future objectives. These objectives include a […]
SRA warns many risk missing COLPs and COFAs deadline
The SRA Executive Director with overall responsibility for the appointment of these key roles warned today that several hundred firms could start the New Year without having their compliance officers in place. Samantha Barrass told the Risk Management for Law Firms conference at Holborn Bars that, the majority of the profession had been fully co-operative […]
Should conveyancers be thinking more about wills?
A survey conducted by Beagle Street, part of the BGL group, has revealed that 59 per cent of adults do not currently have a will. More than 2000 respondents were sampled for the survey which showed 73 per cent of those currently ‘living as married’ said that they did not have a will in place. […]
HS2 Judicial Review starts
The bitter battle regarding the London to Birmingham high-speed rail link opened in the High Court on Monday. The court will conduct a judicial review over the controversial scheme based on five legal challenges from its opponents and critics. The challengers are: The 51M Group, an alliance of 18 local authorities, Heathrow Hub, a pressure […]
SRA closure notice: Beevers Solicitors
The SRA has issued a notice to say that they have intervened to close Beevers Solicitors of 15a-19 Booth Street, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Lancashire, OL6 7LD The firms ID was 77654. The Committee was satisfied that grounds for intervention existed under: (a)Paragraph 1 (1) (c) of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Solicitors Act 1974 (as […]
Mortgage fraud rose 8% in 2011
The latest Experian Fraud Report shows that UK fraud is now at a record level. During the past 12 months, Experian estimates fraud increased by at least 4% amounting to annual UK losses of £70billion. Mortgage fraud continues to rise with 34 out of 10,000 transactions found to be fraudulent in 2011. The figure was […]
