Land registration: Practice guides
Official searches (PG12) Page summary: How to make an official search and information on their purpose and effect (practice guide 12). Change made: The guide has been amended to provide clearer guidance for customers to improve the lodgement of searches. Time updated: 6:00am, 28 July 2025
‘Dishonest’ licensed conveyancer banned for forging signatures and misleading HMLR
A licensed conveyancer has been banned from practising by the Solicitors Regulation Authority after forging client signatures on a mortgage deed, falsifying an email purportedly from the clients and lying about the circumstances surrounding the case. Tanya Khan, a licensed conveyancer at Mackrell Solicitors in Covent Garden at the time of the offences, also used […]
Cambridge firm fined £173,000 for failing to identify client as PEP
A Cambridge firm of solicitors has been fined £172,934 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for failing to identify a client as a non-domestic politically exposed person (PEP). The failure by Taylors Vintner LLP led to a second firm being provided with inaccurate information, having been told that the client’s identity had been verified in accordance […]
NatWest signs formal commitment with PEXA
NatWest has signed a formal commitment with PEXA to proceed with an implementation programme for remortgage transactions by the end of the first half of 2026, with the intention of facilitating sale and purchase transactions. The FTSE-100 listed bank is the third largest mortgage lender in the UK and was responsible for 12% of all […]
‘Why the rush?’ HomeOwners Alliance has ‘serious concerns’ over CMA’s £100m proposal for house builders
The HomeOwners Alliance has said it has ‘serious concerns’ about the Competition and Markets Authority’s proposed £100 million settlement with seven major house builders, and has asked the authority to explain why it has not pursued a fuller investigation. In an official response to the CMA’s consultation on the matter, the HomeOwners Alliance has questioned […]
Consumers call for regulation as fifth of buyers say viewings were conditional on using estate agent brokers
Research carried out in the wake of Panorama’s exposé on conditional selling by estate agents has revealed overwhelming public support for stricter regulations in the industry, with a fifth of respondents saying viewings were conditional on using estate agent mortgage brokers. In a survey of 1,000 recent buyers and sellers across England, carried out by […]
Rightmove CEO calls for stamp duty reform
Rightmove has repeated its calls for stamp duty reform, which it says is ‘a barrier to movement’ in the housing market. Chief executive Johan Svanstrom (pictured) has said he wants ‘to see ways that affordability can be improved and more first-time buyers can be supported onto the housing ladder’. The call echoes the CEO’s comments […]
What’s happened in the property market so far this year?
In the regular quarterly update looking at the latest statistics from Landmark, Today’s Conveyancer Podcast host David Opie is joined by Ben Robinson and Rob Gurney of Landmark to pore over the latest Property Trends report covering the second quarter of 2025. This is the first opportunity to review the impact of the stamp duty […]
Diary of a High Street Conveyancer – Is LinkedIn becoming nastier?
Is it me or is LinkedIn becoming nastier? What happened to all the #bekind words? All I seem to see on LinkedIn is agents berating conveyancers , conveyancers berating other conveyancers, conveyancers complaining about agents. Is this what we want the public to see? And I had personal experience of this about three weeks ago […]
Have some conveyancers lost the art of taking instructions?
In a profession built on precision, trust, and the clear relay of legal advice, an unsettling trend may be emerging, conveyancers making transaction related decisions without first advising and consulting with their clients. Time and again, conveyancers find themselves deep into a matter, only to hit an infuriating wall, responses from the opposing conveyancer who […]