The Council of Licensed Conveyancers has provided an update on the progress at Simplify as it continues its staged recovery from the cyber attack it suffered last week.
A statement on the CLC website has been updated to say that no client funds were compromised and that all contracted completion due to take place last week have been completed.
The group is now beginning to exchange contracts on files that are ready to exchange and complete and have started work on new cases nearing exchange.
Simplify say its expects to increase capacity as it brings more of its systems back online.
For clients and conveyancers on the other side of the transaction Simplify have confirmed that where contracts have exchanged, they will be able to complete and you should have received contact.
Advising clients who have not yet exchanged with their seller or buyer, Simplify add
“(Clients must) consider whether to wait to progress their transactions when Simplify’s systems are running again or whether to instruct a different conveyancer. The limited access Simplify currently has to transaction files means that they cannot currently provide files to another conveyancer. We are pressing Simplify to address this. This could mean that you would need to start from the beginning, and this may result in your transaction taking longer. You should consider how far advanced your transaction is – how much work has already been done on it – when you make your decision.
Simplify have also confirmed that it will not charged for work completed to date by Simplify should clients wish to move to another conveyancer and have committed to passing on searches to the new conveyancer as and when they are returned.
The CLC continue to “closely monitor the operations of the involved firms and have outlined our expectations that Simplify ensures its clients’ interests are being protected and any disruption to individual clients and chains of house sales and purchases is being contained as far as possible.”
