Market Decline Continues But Sentiment Improving
Despite long term sentiment proving increasingly positive, the next three months will see buyer enquiries, residential housing stock, newly agreed sales and property prices all decline further. According to the RICS Residential Survey report for October, new buyer enquiries fell for the second month in a row, displaying a UK wide net balance figure of […]
Portal Technology And The Legal Sector
Almost a third of all housing sales fall through each year. Between July 2018 and July 2019, a recent survey, conducted by Reallymoving found that 29% of all home sales collapsed before reaching completion. Of the number of transactions to fall through, a tenth were attributed to severe delays in the conveyancing process. Despite consumers […]
Third Of Local Authorites Fail To Meet 10 Day Search Deadline
A third of local authorities are struggling to return local searches within the Government imposed guideline of 10 working days. At the start of 2019, the then Housing Minister, Heather Wheeler, indicated that 80% of local authorities in England and Wales were successfully returning searches within ten working days. However, committed to improve the efficiency […]
New Housing Stock Sinks To Financial Crisis Lows
Housing stock has plummeted in recent months as sellers retreat from the market whilst the political situation remains uncertain. According to the latest figures released in the Rightmove House Price Index, there are 14.9% fewer active sellers compared with a year ago. This represented the largest year on year decline since August 2009. The figures […]
Expert Discusses Conveyancing Issues And Potential Sector Solutions
The home buying and selling process has started to struggle as the weight of political uncertainty begins to take its toll on buyers and sellers. As transactions reduce, all stakeholders in the property process look to ensure their processes are as efficient as possible. The Government has accused the home buying and selling process of […]
Brexit Causes Frosty Winter House Price Declines
The winter months are set to become increasingly frosty as experts predict house prices are set to decline by 1.3% over the next three months. The data further speculated that some regions will fare considerably worse than others as Brexit deters buyers and sellers from entering the property market, according to Reallymoving. The average house […]
Technology Is Pivotal To Top Law Firms Strategic Plans
The use of evolving technology has become fundamental in the UK’s leading law firms key strategic planning. With developments in artificial intelligence, automation and machine learning transforming businesses, top law firms are tapping into the potential of tech to help meet the needs of the market. A recent survey of the UK’s top 100 law […]
Top Tips for Common Objection Handling
Here are our top tips to help you when you’re objection handling. Take a walk in your client’s shoes Buying a house is one of the most stressful things a person will do in their lifetime, so remember when you’re talking to a client, empathise with their situation. Try and establish the motive behind the […]
Young Buyers Over Reliant On Family Support
Soaring house prices, political uncertainty and stagnant wages for created a difficult market for people trying to purchase UK property in 2019. As the year draws to an end, and the Government look for more new homes to be built than ever before, more people are also resigned to the fact that home ownership may be out […]
New Hires at LendInvest
LendInvest has expanded its team by hiring a new Director of Mortgage Underwriting and a second Business Development Manager in the North West. Gene Clohessy joins the team as the Director of Mortgage Underwriting from Shawbrook Bank. She will be leading the team towards its goal of market leading broker engagement, faster underwriting processes and […]
Experts Discuss Anti-Money Laundering And Conveyancing
Since the 2017 Money Laundering Regulations came into force, conveyancers and key stakeholders in the property sector have struggled to prevent property from being purchased with illicit finance. Over 400 UK properties, worth in excess of £5 billion, have been purchased using suspicious wealth according to a recent report by Transparency International UK. Furthermore, 293 […]
Properties Worth £8 Million Seized In AML Bust
17 properties worth in excess of £8 million have been seized by the National Crime Agency (NCA) following a civil recovery and tax investigation. Four members of the Davies family; Shane, his wife Rhianna, mother Sheila and sister Tracey, surrendered the property assets, including a villa in Tenerife and 16 properties across Somerset after admitting […]
Growing Revenues With Brighter Law
We work on the premise that conveyancers should convert around 70% of their estimates. Less than this, then there is a problem. Do you know who converts the most enquiries or who the top fee earner is in your firm? From experience of ‘crunching the numbers’ we have found that perception is sometimes not the […]
Hundreds Of Flood Warnings Issued As Storms Wreak Havoc Across UK
Severe weather and flooding plagued the UK over the last night, culminating in transport disruption, home evacuations and extensive property damage. At the weather’s peak force, six severe weather warnings, indicating a threat/danger to life, were put in place with all locations situated along the River Don. An Environment Agency (EA) rain gauge showed the […]
Diversity In Conveyancing: SRA Outlook 2019/20
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) have released their Risk Outlook for 2019/20, citing ‘Diversity in the profession’ as one of their nine challenging key risks which continually needs tackling in the legal industry. Promoting diversity in the legal profession has been a difficult task over many decades and despite many campaigns to address the issue, still more needs to be done. In the 2018/19 Risk Outlook it stated: “Our law firm diversity tool shows that entry into […]
The Law Society’s Assessment Of Proposed Conveyancing Reform
In August 2019, the Law Society published its latest thinking on the Government’s proposals to reform the process of residential conveyancing, based on the results of a consultation paper published in 2017. Most recently, the Government released new guidance on what residential property conveyancing consumers should expect when buying or selling. What are the proposals […]
Construction Sector Optimism Slumps To 6 Year Low
UK construction work fell for the sixth consecutive month, slumping to the lowest output levels since the financial crisis in 2009. According to respondents of the IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction Total Activity Index, optimism for the year ahead has reached its weakest levels since 2012. Although the IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction Total Activity Index level has risen marginally since […]
Titlesolv Appoint Underwriting Director for Ireland
Titlesolv have appointed Niall Sheridan as Underwriting Director for Ireland. Niall joins Titlesolv’s growing executive team, who consist of Christopher Taylor (Chief Executive Officer), Claire Connolly (Finance Director) and Keith Rawlinson (Underwriting Director for the UK). Christopher Taylor, Chief Executive Officer for Titlesolv said: “Niall’s appointment comes at a time of growth and change for […]
Young Buyers Left In ‘Starter Home’ Wilderness Following Government Failure
A National Audit Office (NAO) report has claimed that plans to build 200,000 affordable homes specifically for first-time buyers has failed in spectacular fashion with no homes being built. Despite the ‘starter homes’ idea and announcement being made in 2014 and heavily backed in David Cameron’s manifesto pledges embedded in the 2015 general election, a catalogue of […]
Improving Client Services Through Innovative Technology
Anti-money laundering has been a hot topic in the news recently. Whilst compliance can be a huge factor for many firms, some technological offerings are also creating an additional benefit of improving efficiency and saving both clients and conveyancers precious time. One such offering is being provided by Lawyer Checker after the law firm protection […]