Title And Property Information Up Front in Conveyancing? Of Course
The property market is heading for a perfect storm. Easing of lockdown. People wanting to move, realising that they need more space / garden / a home office. SDLT changes to fire up the market – but which are due to end in March 2021. All great, right? Well, yes of course. All property professionals […]
New Stamp Duty Land Tax Rates For Non-Residents
Non-residents will have new rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) from the 1 April 2021 under new measures. The new rate will be 2% higher than purchases made by UK residents, and will apply to freehold and leasehold property, as well as rents on the grant of a new lease. The objective of the […]
Property Logbooks What Does The Future Hold?
Property logbooks seem to be gaining some momentum in the property market. Tom Lyes from Today’s Conveyancer spoke to Stuart Young from PropertyLogbook.co.uk, Angela Hesketh, Director and Property Head at Jackson Lees and Maria Lati, Partner and Head of Residential Property at Grant Saw to get their views. Although many of us understand the concept […]
Conveyancing During These Covid-19 Times – Book Out Now
Congratulations goes to Paul Sams and Louise Uphill from Dutton Gregory Solicitors who have written and published their own book. Titled Covid-19, ‘Residential Property, Equity Release and Enfranchisement The Essential Guide‘ the book is available to buy on Amazon, and all proceeds will go to charity. Dutton Gregory took to LinkedIn to promote the authors new […]
Free Mentoring Offered To Firms To Help Develop Equality, Diversity And Inclusion
A new scheme launched this week that will give law firms the opportunity to develop their approaches to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) with 12 months of free support from firms recognised as leaders in the field of EDI. The scheme aims to create more inclusive workplaces and businesses which will help benefit not only […]
LEAP And Yourkeys Break The Mould
Legal practice management system provider LEAP announces a new technology partnership whereby conveyancers using LEAP software provide their services to property builders via the Yourkeys digital platform. Yourkeys helps to speed up the conveyancing process for home builders by effectively tracking sales and qualifying and onboarding buyers. By supporting Yourkeys’ objectives of delivering greater transparency, […]
Moving Towards A 21st Century Conveyancing Process
In all likelihood the words, ‘COVID-19 has been a game-changer’, will figure a lot in both the here and now, and in the future. That will certainly be the case for the conveyancing sector, where we were seeing a fairly progressive approach being taken to the changes required prior to lockdown, but where now the […]
Reopening The Housing Market – Industry Guidance And Professional Experience
Pan-industry guidance has been released to professionals in the property industry to provide them with information “to enable them to complete moves while maintaining safety as social distancing measures are eased”. Developed collaboratively from organisations and professionals across the industry the guidance focuses on physical contact points in the home moving process. General recommendations put […]
eSignatures Get The Nod From Land Registry
As the world shifts to digital modes of conducting business, with the Covid-19 pandemic speeding up the process, UK’s Land Registry has made plain its intentions to accept electronic signatures in conveyancing. “We will soon start accepting witnessed electronic signatures and then take steps to ensure that digital signatures (more specifically Qualified Electronic Signatures) can […]
CLC Response To Legal Services Consumer Panel Quality Indicators Research
Responding to the publication by the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) of its research on consumers feedback on quality indicators in legal services, Sheila Kumar, Chief Executive of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) says: “We know from our own monitoring that CLC practices are complying well with the existing transparency requirements we introduced in […]
HM Land Registry Annual Report Release
Over the last 12 months Land Registry has paid out £5.3m in compensation for inaccuracies in its register and compensation for fraud. Representing only 0.00008% of the title value of property in its register, the organisation states it is only a miniscule amount lost of taxpayer funds. The organisation has also stated that it has […]
eSignatures Can Help Modernise Conveyancing
Last week, we shared the news that Mike Harlow, the Deputy Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Land Registrar announcing in his blog that HM Land Registry will soon be introducing electronic signatures. The legal sector can be seen as archaic as most of it is still conducted on paper, and it seems to be difficult […]
The CLC Discuss The Future Of Conveyancing
The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has released a discussion paper with the aim to highlight areas that need to be addressed by regulators and stakeholders in a bid to influence and develop conveyancing in the future. Janet Paraskeva, Chair of the CLC, said in her foreword: “It is an exciting time to be involved […]
Challenges To Collaboration In The Residential Property Sector
Managing Director at mio Emma Vigus talks to Chris Harris about the challenges to collaboration in the residential property sector, how organisations can come together to work more effectively, and discusses the success she’s had within popular networking group Women in Residential Property. Emma said: “Collaboration is a bit of a buzzword in the residential […]
CGT Review Could Be Disastrous For The Housing Market
A review into the Capital Gains (CGT) regime has been requested by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, causing worry in the property industry. In his letter to the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS), Mr Sunak requested that a review be undertaken to “identify and offer advise about opportunities to simplify the taxation” as […]
Positivity In The Sector Returning
After three months of near stasis, the market has exploded. In fact, we at ASAP have just had our busiest month ever with new instructions. July is on track to deliver likewise. How much of this is pent up demand remains to be seen but, anecdotally, estate agents are telling us that there is renewed […]
Flexible Working: Why It Matters (And It’s Not About Covid-19)
Published by the Daily Mail, the paper that hired Katie Hopkins, we have an article by Dr Eliza Filby. I am not going to question Dr Filby’s integrity nor spend any time questioning her motives for writing such a biased, short sighted, misconceived piece other than to say it smells very much like she owns […]
Don’t Lose Personal The Touch
Housebuyers still want the personal touch despite the move to remote digital property deals, says Adkirk Law. Linda Kirk, Director of Conveyancing at Adkirk Law, is a firm believer in this. She explained: “The market in the region and further afield is busy with some deals still being completed from pre-lockdown and pent-up demand, but […]
SDLT Amendments To Conveyancing Calculator
The headline news for the property market in the Chancellor’s latest announcement is the temporary holiday on stamp duty on the first £500,000 of all property sales in England and Northern Ireland. Until March 2021, effective immediately, the threshold has been raised which will be seen as welcome news for many property purchasers. Within hours […]
The Rise Of Webinars In Conveyancing
Webinars have always been a great tool for business, but never more so than during the Covid-19 crisis period. Social distancing restrictions meant that conferences, training and events were suddenly completely off-limits. This left legal firms with both a gap in their marketing and struggling to provide employees with continued development. Webinars in conveyancing quickly […]