SearchFlow Supports Local Land Charges Awards For Excellence 2019
SearchFlow – the UK’s leading conveyancing search solutions provider – is supporting the 2019 Local Land Charges Awards for Excellence, sponsoring the Best Customer Experience Award category. The awards, which are organised by Land Data, the National Land Information Service (NLIS) regulator, take place on Monday 4th March at Birmingham’s prestigious Sky High venue at […]
Searches UK And HM Land Registry Seminars Announced
Searches UK and the HM Land Registry are jointly hosting a series of informative and interactive Free Legal Seminars to provide an update on the current developments and a look into the future of the legal conveyancing sector. The CPD accredited events are designed to inform conveyancers and solicitors on a range of interesting topics […]
Brexit Deters 74% Of Millennial Home Owners From Moving
The vast majority of millennials that currently own property are adamant that Brexit ambiguity will be the main deterrent preventing them from attempting to move home within the next two years. According to recent research, conducted by moving specialists AnyVan.com, 74% of respondents aged under 35-years-old are anxious of the implications Brexit will have on […]
Unannounced HMRC AML Visits Crack Down On Non-Compliant Estate Agents
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officers have continued the fight against money laundering in the UK by visiting over 50 agencies suspected of trading without officially registering with HMRC; a clear breach under anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. Amongst the largest businesses in breach of AML regulations was Countrywide who have amassed fines in excess of […]
Annual Number Of Landlords Registering For Buy-To-Let Property Plummets
The number of registered buy-to-let investors have plummeted in the past year. According to research from the largest independent estate agents, Haart, the number of landlords registering to buy rental property in the UK decreased by 37.4% on an annual basis. The number of interested investors in London have seen an even more extensive drop […]
Conveyancing Defies Brexit Uncertainty To Hit Post-EU Referendum High In Q4 2018
The average number of cases conveyancing firms dealt with in Q4 2018 (65) was the highest quarterly figure recorded since before the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union Total conveyancing volumes in the market were up 8% in Q4 2018 from the previous quarter as the industry enjoyed a strong end […]
Property Market Slowing Despite Slight Transaction Increase
Despite a slight increase in the number of properties registered with HM Land Registry in January, there is a clear indication that the property market is slowing down. There were 99,372 sales received for registration in January compared with the 88,785 registrations made in December 2018. Whilst an increase of 10,000 property sales is certainly […]
Building Industry Pessimistic Over 300,000 Home Target
A recent report has insinuated that house builders feel it is unlikely they will be able to achieve the Government’s target of 300,000 new homes per year, despite consistently improved building figures over recent months. Less than half (48%) of the 400 home building companies that participated in the survey carried out by McBains were […]
Three CLC Law Firms Vulnerable To Email Fraud In Previous Fortnight
The Council for Licensed Conveyancers have revealed that in the past two weeks, three law firms have been targeted by cyber criminals using a very similar phishing strategy. Hackers, had obtained access to an individual’s email information within the firms. Once inside the account, the hacker was able to manipulate messages to automatically forward key […]
Legal Eye Director Passes ISO27001 Exam With Flying Colours
Legal Eye’s Director of Business Development, Jody Evans, has become a qualified ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security Lead Implementer. Jody passed the stringent examination with flying colours; becoming one of only a handful of people ever to have passed the course with a score of 100%. Scott Lloyd, Tutor at BSI said: “We were delighted to welcome […]
Flood Searches More Important Than Ever Due To Climate Change
In these days of digitised property information, conveyancers have a wide choice of search reports at their fingertips when considering how to best identify risk for their client’s chosen property. What is surprising, however, is that only about 29% of orders [1]placed with Geodesys include a full flood assessment, meaning a large proportion of homebuyers […]
Trading Standards Issue Estate Agent Referral Fees Guidance
Fresh guidance from the National Trading Standards Estate Agency team has issued new guidance that will make fees involved in property sales more transparent. In particular, the guidance addresses making referral fees more transparent in order to comply with the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. The new guidance lays out that complete transparency regarding: […]
New Build Homes Should Reflect The Needs Of Ageing Population
72% of the population believe that new homes should be built so that they are accessible for all ages and abilities. Basic requirements for older home owners should be considered by construction companies, especially as the population continues to age and those over the age of 65-years become an increasingly larger percentage of the population. […]
First-Time Buyer Monopoly On Property Market Reaches 20 Year High
A recent report has highlighted that first-time buyers (FTBs) have made up the majority of the property market for the first time in over two decades. The Halifax First-Time Buyer Review found that the 372,000 FTBs that bought houses for the first time in 2018 made up 50% of all house purchases with a mortgage. […]
Implications Of Brexit’s Wait And See Property Market
Brexit uncertainty is creating a ‘wait and see’ approach to home buying in the current climate according to many market commentators with a variety of property figures corroborating these sentiments. The Nationwide House Price Index indicated that buyers were reluctant to stoke their interest following the new year with house prices only increasing by 0.1% […]
Large Chepstow Brownfield Development Site Approved for Housing
The largest brownfield development site in Monmouthshire has been sold to Barratt Homes in a move set to boost Chepstow’s housing stock significantly. Chris Taylor, Commercial Director at Future Climate Info examines the site history, its potential contaminants and remediation approach ahead of construction. Outline permission for up to 450 new homes has been given […]
Today’s Conveyancer Round Table Round Up: Brexit Concerns, Source Of Funds Confusion And Price Transparency Implications
Today’s Conveyancer’s latest round table event enabled the attendees to discuss the pertinent issues affecting conveyancers in 2019. It was unsurprising that the main challenges and concern for the year ahead involved considerations around Brexit, the expectations of conveyancers when it comes to anti-money laundering regulations and the difficult market conditions caused by regulatory changes […]
Help To Buy Property Sales Approaching £50 Billion Since 2013 Launch
50,302 residential property purchases were made using the Help to Buy: Equity loan scheme in England last year. This equates to almost 1,000 property completions using this scheme per week and represents an increase of 13% on the figures from 2017. In total, 41,076 of the housing completions made using the Help to Buy: Equity […]
From 1st March 2019 SDLT Must Be Submitted And Paid Within 14 Days Of Completion
Are you ready for this change? As of 1st March 2019 the timeframe to submit a Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) return, and pay any SDLT due, will reduce from 30 days to 14 days from the effective date of the transaction. Pali’s recently launched Post Completion System enables solicitors, conveyancers and support staff across England […]
Persimmon Share Value Plummets Amidst Help To Buy Speculation
Following the news that Housing Secretary James Brokenshire is considering removing the Government’s coveted Help to Buy scheme from Persimmon PLC, shares in the company fell by almost 5% on Monday. The company’s share value fell by 4.7% on Monday and ended trading with a value of 2,352p as investors worried that the company could […]