Avoid Completion Chaos
‘We all know that midday on a Friday is not the right time to start transferring funds where there is a chain involved.’ Aconveyancing’s founder and director, Natalie Moore, talks through the challenges she has witnessed with firms taking on too much work, leading to broken chains and how she prepares her team for busy […]
Reform of the Mental Health Act must be properly funded
Proposed changes to the mental health system must be properly funded to be effective, the Law Society of England and Wales warned following publication of the Mental Health Act White Paper. Law Society president David Greene said: “It is clear the current system means that all too often compulsory detention and treatment is, or feels […]
Online learning platform from LEAP
LEAP University, which launched in 2019 is an online learning platform that enables users to train and refresh their skills in using the LEAP software via an ever-expanding directory of courses. This includes creating matters and cards, capturing matter level information, generating documents and sharing correspondence. The university is available to every LEAP user and […]
Home building data show sector is recovering
Government support for housing market and construction industry has led to a very healthy increase in the number of completed homes. Stats released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Robert Jenrick MP showed the number of new homes developers have started building have more than doubled compared to the previous quarter […]
Speeding up the conveyancing process
The world of conveyancing has changed dramatically in the last 12 months. The March 2020 lockdown created pent-up demand which was then amplified by the SDLT holiday, combine that demand with new ways of working and the result is the most challenging period most in the conveyancing profession can remember. It is more important than […]
Search Acumen launches data reports and insurance to help beat the stamp duty crunch
Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider, has launched new data reports and insurance to enable real estate lawyers to identify risk upfront and help clients progress transactions ahead of the stamp duty cut off. The new product provides immediate access to all relevant property due diligence information necessary to progress a transaction […]
MPs add their voices to call for SDLT extension
The Northern Research Group (NRG) – backed by over 50 Conservative MPs have written a letter to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, making a number of demands, including the extension of the stamp duty land tax (SDLT) holiday. The NRG has echoed similar worries to other bodies stating that families and businesses face a series of cliff […]
With HM Land Registry’s Safe Harbour Standard, conveyancing will lead the way in digital ID
Digital identity checks have been a key focus for the UK Government over the past year, with various initiatives having been announced throughout 2020, and with HM Land Registry’s recently unveiled ‘Safe Harbour Standard’ the conveyancing industry will be leading the way in terms of best practice. HM Land Registry launched a draft set of […]
RICS keen to consult conveyancers over cladding guidance proposals
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) are keen to engage with conveyancers over proposed guidance proposals in relation to cladding on properties. RICS has issued proposed guidance (Valuation of properties in multi-storey, multi-occupancy residential buildings with cladding) for public consultation. The guidance “aims to help homebuyers and leaseholders, profoundly impacted by delays in the […]
Living in an expedited world
Have you ever wondered what you could get done if there were more hours in the day? Or wished you could split yourself in half? I’m sure lots of parents are thinking this at the moment as they are juggling home-schooling with working from home. It’s been a record-breaking start to 2021 for the property […]
Number of properties owned by overseas companies falls by 4,000 since EU Referendum
• Brexit uncertainty prompts overseas companies to dispose of properties in London and the South East • While overseas company property ownership rises sharply in the North of England – up 11% and 9% in Merseyside and Greater Manchester respectively The number of properties in England and Wales owned by overseas companies has fallen by […]
Government & Industry supports an accredited digital identity scheme for home sales
Etive Technologies has secured an Innovate UK grant, to improve identity verification in the residential home buying and selling process, using a digital identity trust scheme. The project will enable consumers to use one digital identity when buying or selling a home and share this with other relying parties such as estate agents, conveyancers, mortgage […]
What should happen to the property market?
The government is under mounting pressure to implement tighter restrictions to stem the transmission of the coronavirus pandemic. Yesterday, the daily figures around the pandemic revealed that over 1,500 people had sadly lost their lives. A high not seen since the first pandemic. But what would tighter restrictions look like to the property market. At […]
How can your firm manage risk and compliance in an increasingly digital world?
As 2021 gets underway many of us will be reflecting on how we can manage our businesses in the coming months in a landscape of continuing change and, now, lockdown 3.0. One of the biggest questions facing us now is what elements of the new ways of working we’ve had to adopt, and which parts […]
Conveyancers call for urgent extension to SDLT holiday
Covid restrictions create a lottery for homebuyers Three very prominent conveyancing organisations have approached the Chancellor seeking an urgent extension to the SDLT holiday. The Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC), the Conveyancing Association (CA) and the Bold Legal Group (BLG) who in aggregate represent law firms that undertake the majority of home sales and purchases […]
CMA review of legal services
Last month I highlighted how increased transparency is at the heart of most of the work currently being done to try and improve the landscape for consumers, and a report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) shortly afterwards has driven this home. The CMA first looked at competition in the legal market in 2016, […]
National newspaper launches SDLT campaign
Stamp Out The Duty is a campaign launched today, Wednesday 13 January 2021, by The Daily Telegraph, and calls for the stamp duty holiday to be extended. The newspaper says its campaign is: “inspired because it fears hundreds of thousands of buyers risk losing out on the current holiday as transactions slow because of the lockdown.” […]
67% of homebuyers want to see the stamp duty holiday extended
Research by the world’s leading high-net-worth mortgage broker, Enness Global, has revealed to just what extent the current stamp duty holiday in its various forms across the UK has helped boost the market, as well as homebuyer thoughts around missing and extending the current deadline. Enness surveyed 1,000 current homebuyers and asked them: If they […]
Lockdown heightens call for SDLT holiday extension
As we’re all starting to adapt to the new lockdown restrictions, we’re facing new blockers that may not have been apparent during the first national lockdown. Conveyancers are already under mounting pressure as clients demand that their housing pipeline is completed before the 31 March deadline. But with logjams cropping up throughout the pipeline, many […]
Lender accepts ‘No-search indemnity insurance’ to speed up transactions
An intermediary-only mortgage lender has confirmed they will now accept ‘no-search indemnity insurance’ for residential purchases in a bid to speed up the current transaction process logjam. Foundation Home Loans says conveyancing solicitors can place the insurance policy on risk at completion in lieu of local authority and or other searches. A statement from the […]