PSG announced as gold sponsors of The Society for Licensed Conveyancers’ conference 2013
Market leading provider of property searches, insurance and associated services to the Legal and Conveyancing sectors, PSG, has today been announced as the main sponsor for the Society for Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) Annual Conference in November. The Annual Conference, now in its third year, will take place on November 20th at the Riverside Centre in […]
August rents second highest ever
Average rent in August across England and Wales reached just £1 behind the all-time record of August 2012. According to the latest buy-to-let index from LSL Property Services plc, monthly rents in August hit an average of £743, up 0.7% from July. Over the last year rent has increased by an average of 1.3%. Most […]
Shropshire CPD seminar for solicitors and conveyancers
In response to demand by Shropshire law firms for a CPD seminar in the county, a number of key industry speakers are coming to Telford on 9th October. The session covers a variety of subjects including Risk, Compliance and Social Media and will qualify for 2 hours CPD — well timed due to the cut-off […]
BBC Radio 4 looks again at bogus solicitor scams
Radio 4’s You and Yours programme on Friday 13th September focussed on the growing area of vendor conveyancing fraud. The programme focussed on the case of a homebuyer who has lost £100,000 after being defrauded by criminals pretending to be from a branch of Acorn Solicitors. The same fraudsters were the focus of a report […]
Advanced Legal announces new partnership with telephone answering specialists Moneypenny
Advanced Legal recently announced its latest partnership agreement — with telephone answering specialists Moneypenny. Moneypenny, the UK market leader in outsourced call handling and receptionist services, is well known to the UK Legal sector and this agreement is a demonstration of the close working relationship between the two firms — forming part of Advanced Legal’s […]
The Legal Eye team expands with more coverage in the South
Legal Eye is pleased to announce that Zoe Bage has joined the Legal Eye team, extending our coverage in the South. Zoé has worked in the legal sector for the past 17 years. Her legal career has been predominately based within Residential Conveyancing. In recent years she has gained experience in compliance and risk […]
Some Food for Thought – Make Hay While it Lasts
Last Thursday I hosted the Real Estate Symposium dinner and it was a great success. Some of the economic medicine dished out with the wine by the excellent speakers — Jonathan Davis and Michael Coogan — did not dampen the mood. In fact, it led to a lively debate in the subsequent “open mike” session. […]
Boom or Crash – What’s Your Money On?
This is my first ever blog – I feel like the first time caller on the radio talk ins. I am not sure how others use this medium. I wanted to reach out to explain why I am returning to the property transaction industry. I want to do this in a way that is less […]
Strong 2012 for myhomemove
Leading conveyancer myhomemove has announced 2012 was its strongest year to date, with transactions up 13.5% from 2011. myhomemove hope to continue this success over the next few years and treble their transaction volumes in the next three years. The company completed 29,513 transactions last year whilst seeing an EBITDA increase of 41% from 2011. […]
SRA launches Practising Certificate renewals
The SRA has today launched the 2013 round of Practising Certificate renewals, with a closing date of Thursday, 31 October. They are offering a range of support measures to help those completing applications. These include; – Provision of detailed guidance for authorised signatories and organisation contacts completing bulk renewals – A readiness checklist – Updated […]
Capita to acquire Optima Legal Services
Capita plc has announced that it has reached a conditional agreement to acquire the English business of Optima Legal Services Limited (‘Optima Legal’), including its subsidiary Cost Advocates. Optima Legal provides legal services for property transactions, debt recovery and litigation services, while Cost Advocates provides legal costs drafting and negotiation services. The firm has offices […]
Legal Service Consumer Panel and CLC address conveyancers
Representatives of the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) talked last week to conveyancers about the current and future state of regulation. At the quarterly meeting of the Conveyancing Association (CA) Elisabeth Davies, Chair of the LSCP, outlined the panel’s recent proposals to simplify legal services regulation to focus […]
RICS suggests controversial 5% cap on house price inflation
RICS have sparked debate by suggesting the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee should consider limiting annual house price inflation to 5% in order to prevent “another housing bubble, reckless bank lending and a dangerous build up in household debt”. Several industry figures quickly reacted to the proposal. Paul Smith, CEO of haart estate agents, […]
Scottish conveyancing firms reject Separate Representation
One of largest conveayncing firms in Scotland, McVey and Murricane (MM) has authored a report arguing that Separate Representation would be a disaster for the Scottish legal profession and the Scottish homebuying public. The news follows the results of the Law Society of Scotland’s separate representation consultation which showed opinions were highly split when it […]
Berliner PII cover uncertainty
Firms who took out Professional Indemnity cover with firm Berliner should have received notification that there is uncertainty as to their cover for the forthcoming year. Berliner took over clients from troubled firm Balva, meaning a double whammy of bad news for some firms who will now face a rush to put alternative arrangements in […]
Gross mortgage lending continues to grow
Gross UK mortgage lending in July was 29% up from last July, and 12% from June, taking the total to £16.7 billion. The Council of Mortgage Lenders figures showed total home-owner house purchase lending continued to grow with 57,400 house purchase loans advanced in July, an increase of 9% on June and up by 21% […]
Book Review: Conveyancing Handbook
The invaluable Conveyancing Handbook has been updated and is now in its 20th Edition. Once again Frances Silverman and her team have produced an excellent piece of work. The book is useful not only for essential guidance for conveyancers, but also as a measure of good practice when things go wrong. However busy you may […]
Record month for myhomemove
The UK’s largest conveyancer myhomemove has revealed that it experienced a record August, with 3938 completions in 22 working days. This breaks the firm’s own record for the most transactions ever completed in a month. Doug Crawford, CEO of myhomemove said: "August has proved a phenomenal month for myhomemove, allowing us to break our own […]
Fake Land Registry emails contain malware
A number of emails hiding a piece of malware have been circulating, purporting to come from the Land Registry. The emails inform recipients that some fees will be collected by the Land Registry from their accounts. They have been reported to include the following wording: “This is notification that Land Registry will debit 202.00 GBP […]
Government offer £400m private rental investment opportunity
Housing Minister Mark Prisk has offered a huge investment opportunity as part of the £1bn Build to Rent scheme. The scheme will operate alongside £10bn in government housing guarantees and support developers and investors who want to move into the private rental market. In July, the first Build to Rent deal was signed, which will […]
