COLP/COFA proposals risk diverting work away from small practices and reducing consumer choice – CTF
Conveyancing practices and small law firms could be forced to turn away high value property transactions to avoid hitting the £2 million client money threshold proposed in the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) recent COLP/COFA consultation. The warning comes from the Conveyancing Task Force (CTF) following their meeting with the regulator to air their concerns about […]
SRA consults on impact of technology and AI on solicitors’ learning and development
An eight week consultation has been launched by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) inviting views on proposed updates to the Statement of Solicitor Competence (SoSC) and functioning legal knowledge (FLK). Announcing the consultation the SRA said as the sector evolves, there are “new ways of delivering services and emerging risks and opportunities shaping the profession.” […]
Consultation launches on updated National Conveyancing Protocol
A consultation on proposed updates to the National Conveyancing Protocol has been announced at the annual Law Society Property Conference hosted at Chancery Lane. The Conveyancing Protocol is the Law Society of England and Wales’ framework for good practice in residential conveyancing. All Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS)-accredited firms must follow the protocol. Announcing the consultation […]
Government must demonstrate it can ‘expand capacity’ in magistrates’ court, Justice Committee cautions
The Justice Committee has welcomed the government’s decision to roll back on jury reforms, but has issued new warnings over the burden being placed on magistrates’ courts, saying planned recruitment of magistrates is “unrealistic”. Last week Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government confirmed it has mostly scrapped plans to remove juries tabled by Sie Keir Starmer’s […]
Technology round-up: appointments, and news from across prop-tech and beyond
All the latest innovations brought together in a regular round-up of news, updates and upgrades for conveyancing firms. CoPSO Welcomes New Affiliate Member and Search Code Subscriber, Property Conveyancing Searches The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) has announced Property Conveyancing Searches as its newest Affiliate Member and subscriber to the Search Code. Property Conveyancing […]
Government consults on extending Awaab’s Law to private tenants
The government has announced plans to extend Awaab’s law to private rentals, potentially more than doubling the number of households legally entitled to fast damp and mould repairs. A consultation launched this week on how best to implement the law for an estimated 5m private rental households. ‘Awaab’s Law’ is named for two-year-old Awaab Ishak, […]
Why trusted location data will be crucial to home buying reforms
Ordnance Survey’s land and property development market development lead, Isabelle Chatel de Brancion, explains why it’s not only providing property data earlier to conveyancers that will avoid delays. It needs to be trusted, connected and consistently applied through every transaction. Chasing information is an all-too-familiar part of a property transaction for conveyancers. Information arrives at […]
The false finish: Why fluent AI drafting is conveyancing’s silent negligence trap
While tech conferences obsess over existential AI threats, high-street conveyancers are wrestling with 120 day transaction delays and Friday completion cut-offs. The real risk facing property firms isn’t science fiction. It is the false security of a draft that looks ready to send. At 4:30 PM on a Friday, nobody in a conveyancing department is […]
Diary of a High Street Conveyancer – The postman always delivers
The postie… do you remember them? I was thinking about my recent musings on AI and enquiries, and about how many unnecessary enquiries land in my inbox every day, and I started to think about how in the ol’days, we would get post. Do you remember post? Every morning, the office juniors would open the […]