The glass remains half full for property experts as HMRC releases latest transaction figures
Following three consecutive months of increases, HMRC figures for seasonally adjusted residential transactions in August show a decrease of 2% – from 95,240 in July to 93,630 in August. Non-seasonally adjusted residential transactions increased by 2%. The non-seasonally adjusted increase was greeted with enthusiasm by industry experts, with some also pointing out the seasonally adjusted […]
Law Society hits back over plans to increase scrutiny on pooled client accounts
The Law Society of England and Wales has hit back at proposals to place ‘substantial new burdens on legal practitioners’ over plans to require firms to conduct greater due diligence on pooled client accounts as part of draft amendments to Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing (Amendment and Miscellaneous Provision) Regulations 2025 (MLRs) Statutory Instrument (SI). Responding […]
More firms named as Legal Ombudsman publishes second tranche of complaints decisions
The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has published the next round of its public interest decisions as part of efforts to create ‘greater transparency and accountability’ in legal services. In the latest naming and shaming, complaints relate to pricing transparency, poor advice, holding on to client monies, and a barrister who had failed to provide an outline […]
HMLR figures reveal 86 fraudulent applications last year – 0.0019% of total
HM Land Registry has released official figures revealing the number of fraudulent applications it received to create or update the Land Register in the year 2024/2025 – with just 86 identified as fraudulent. With a total of 4.4 million applications received over the same period, fraudulent applications account for just 0.0019% -significantly lower than figures […]
Urgent action needed to expand house-building workforce, NHBC warns
The National House Building Council (NHBC) has warned the government will fail to meet its home building targets without urgent action to expand the workforce needed to complete the work. NHBC chief operating officer David Campbell has said the government’s targets will be difficult to achieve without a ‘significant and sustained expansion’ of the house-building […]
Short leases, long chains: the lending pinch point every conveyancer meets
A buyer agrees a price on Tuesday; by Friday the valuation is back and the file feels less certain than it did at memo-of-sale. The sticking point isn’t title, searches or even the survey. It’s the lease length and, more precisely, how a lender will see it when time is already tight. Conveyancers know this […]
Perfect Portal launches Convey Insights in partnership with TwentyConvey
Perfect Portal has announced a partnership with TwentyConvey, the UK’s leading residential property data provider. As two legal software providers committed to empowering firms with real-time data, this collaboration brings together their shared goal of helping conveyancing practices drive business growth through greater visibility and smarter decision-making. Conveyancers have long struggled with limited visibility of […]