Leading Professionals Call On Governement To Clarity On Deferred Debts
The UK’s leading professional services group of independent chartered accountancy and law firms, the UK200Group, has called for the government to put in place measures for the handing of billions of pounds worth of business borrowing as a result of the pandemic. The issues surround how the government and their agencies are going to treat […]
Stamp Duty Changes Appears To Have Increased Overseas Buyer Enquiries
Legal & General Mortgage Club has stated that there has been a significant rise in adviser mortgage searches for non-UK residents since the stamp duty holiday announcement. The SmartrCriteria tool, from the Club, has shown that criteria searches showed the fourth most search term was “visas” during the first week of June and the most […]
Surge In Conveyancing Vacancies
Since the 23rd July 2020, Today’s Conveyancer has been keeping track of the number of adverts that include the term “conveyancer” on recruitment website Indeed, which has shown an increase of over 34%. Estate agents and those in the industry have reported a surge in sales of property following the announcement of the stamp duty […]
Covid Clauses Rising Due To Local Lockdown Risk
The law firm Devonshires, has seen a spike in the number of clients asking for Covid Clauses to be included into their contracts when moving home. It is believed the client’s reasoning for this clause is due to the threat of local lockdowns, which homebuyers fear could prevent them from moving into their new home, […]
Responses To Proposed Planning Reform
Following the white paper reforms to planning, we round up some of the responses by those in the industry. Yesterday the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick (6 August) announced an overhaul to the planning system that would improve a currently “sluggish” systems and allow more development to take place quickly on brownfield sites, leaving green and […]
Search Acumen Comments On Halifax’s House Price Index For July 2020
Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments: “This latest data shows the UK property market’s recovery is continuing to gather momentum. “The uptick in house prices may have been partly driven by households viewing their financial position more positively. People fortunate enough to return to work are likely to have greater visibility over their long-term […]
Rightmove Half Year Revenue Results Annouced
Rightmove results have been released showing a revenue and profit drop for the six months to 30 June 2020. Dominated by the pandemic, for the first six months of 2020, it is not surprising that the numbers had dropped, coupled with the fact Rightmove gave its customers a 75% discount. The results showed that revenue […]
Rightmove Results Confirm Strong Housing Market
This morning Rightmove produced its half year results to the stock market and had given a good insight into exactly how strong the housing market is. From a conveyancers perspective Rightmove has over 940,000 properties listed on its portal and is as good a bell weather of the housing market as you are going to […]
Search Acumen Comments On MHCLG Planning Consultation
Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments: “Few areas of the industry are calling out for transformation more than the UK’s planning system which places a greater emphasis on documents rather than data and local officials’ knowledge of the areas they directly manage. “Covid 19 has acted as catalyst for the digitisation of several areas […]
Celebrating Ten Years Of The Bold Legal Group
Free online forum now available to all conveyancers The Bold Legal Group is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Founder Rob Hailstone said: “It is no secret that the BLG was formed after Hips went, and that Bold stood for bundle of legal documents. However, pretty quickly in 2010 I realised that voluntary packs were […]
Consultation To Reform Planning System For The Future
Today, 6 August, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick announced that an overhaul of the planning system is needed, to deliver “high-quality, sustainable homes communities need” and that need will be at the heart of “significant reforms” to housing policies. Stating the current situation is “sluggish” in providing homes and ineffective in obligating developers to properly fund […]
Webinar: AI And Natural Language Processing In Law
On Thursday 13 August, SearchFlow – the UK’s leading provider of conveyancing search solutions – is hosting a webinar that invites conveyancers to discuss the application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) in legal practices. With the increasing sophistication of NLP technologies, the ability to intelligently read, extract and analyse data is set to revolutionise the […]
First Electronically Signed Deeds Submitted To HMLR
The Partnership become the first firm to submit electronically signed Deeds to HM Land Registry, through InfoTrack The first electronically signed deeds have been submitted to HM Land Registry (HMLR) by The Partnership, using SignIT from InfoTrack. In July, HM Land Registry announced the intention to accept electronic signatures on deeds provided they follow certain […]
PropTech Platform Could Streamline Completion Process
WeComplete’s SaaS platform claims it can streamline the completion process, by coordinating the work of estate agents and legal teams. The PropTech platform is said to house unique software which includes: new business generation quoting client onboarding ant-money laundering checks proof of funds lender integration property searchs queries certificates forms document filing eSignature payment collection […]
Regulated Searches vs. Council Searches
A Local Authority Search is a hugely important part of any conveyancing procedure. It includes vital information on charges or restrictions relating to the property in question. There are two ways of carrying these out; a Council Search is conducted by a Local Authority staff member, while Regulated Searches are carried out by the employee […]
Thinktank Recommends Tax Grab With New Property CGT
Since the escalating costs of support to the nation throughout the pandemic, as well as the stamp duty holiday announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, many have wondered how the government will make up the loss. The Social Market Foundation (SMF), a think tank, has suggested a new tax on the increase in the value of […]
Industry Reacts To Land Registry eSignature News
Yesterday, HM Land Registry made the announcement that they will accept ‘witnessed electronic signatures’. It is a move which is deemed as bringing the conveyancing process into the 21st Century, and something that many in the profession have been asking for. Reacting to the news, Adam Forshaw, Managing Director for O’Neill Patient, commented: “This is a […]
Larger Law Firms To Face New Economic Crime Levy
Announced in the Budget in March, larger law firms will face a levy of between £100 and £200 per every £1m of revenue, that will go towards supporting the government’s economic plan. Firms that are subject to the Money Laundering Regulations, will have to pay the levy so that the Treasury can raise £100m to […]
OneSearch Direct Responds To Surge In Demand As Market Reignites
OneSearch Direct, the largest local search data company in the UK, has today expanded its Express No-Search Indemnity range to assist the conveyancing industry as it copes with a rejuvenated housing market. Economy-boosting initiatives such as the stamp duty holiday, relaxed planning regulations and competitive remortgage deals, coupled with pent up demand and an increase […]
HM Land Registry To Accept Electronic Signatures
From today, Monday 27 July 2020, HM Land Registry (HMLR) will accept ‘witnessed electronic signatures’: electronic signatures that enable an individual to sign legal documents, but which still require a witness who is present at the time to also sign the documents electronically. New practice guidance for conveyancers has been published which explains how to […]