Cheapest Homes Too Expensive For Most Young People
A new report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found that the majority of the cheapest homes are too expensive for 40% of young adults in the UK. Attributed to a meteoric rise in house prices and wages increasing lower than the rate of inflation over recent years, the gap between salary and […]
Legal Services Consumer Panel Castigate ICAEW’s Voluntary Compliance Decision
Following The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) announcement that they will not enforce price transparency rules onto its firms that provide probate services, The Legal Services Consumer Panel have released a statement castigating the decision. Instead, the ICAEW have said that price transparency will remain voluntary to its 280 regulated probate […]
Right To Manage Companies And Consents
RIGHT TO MANAGE COMPANIES AND CONSENTS REINER V TRIPLARK LTD [2018] EWCA Civ 2151 A recent Court of Appeal case reminds us that when buying a flat where a Right to Manage (RTM) company is in place, the procedure to be followed may well be different from that normally expected. RTM companies are usually set […]
SRA and CLC to speak at Legal Eye conference
Legal Eye’s conference in Birmingham next month will feature presentations from both the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC). Risk and compliance advisers Legal Eye have put together a packed programme of talks, panel discussions and breakout sessions to help risk and compliance professionals, COLPs, COFAs, senior and managing partners, […]
SRA Release Waiver Register Information
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) have released its register of waivers which allows certain exemptions for specific rules that do not apply to individual firms. The ‘safe space’ and register of waivers system was launched in the hope of reducing the restrictions on business, thus enabling many firms to operate with more freedom that will […]
HMLR Expand Digitisation And Blockchain Property Sales Enter Europe
The HM Land Registry (HMLR) have continued their relentless task of transferring all local authority data onto a digital system. The City of London Corporation is now live, and all property requests will go through HMLR as opposed to the local authority from now on. This is now the third local authority to have successfully […]
Latest Index Indicates Stable Housing Market
The housing index, measured by the Halifax, has found that prices are 2.5% higher than a year earlier, a 1.8% increase in the third quarter compared to quarter two results. Despite the average house price now standing at £225,995 because of the 1.4% decrease in house prices caused by poor August and September sales, experts […]
Government Insist On Estate Agent Referral Fee Transparency
New research from the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), carried out by YouGov, has found that 59% of the 500 respondents who accepted estate agent advice and used a recommended conveyancer were unaware that a referral fee was paid to the estate agency. It was this lack of communication that Heather Wheeler, MP, believes should […]
Pali’s Mel Hogan set to volunteer on charity Ghana trip!
Next May, our newest Palian Mel is heading to Ghana in West Africa, where she will be volunteering in a children’s day care centre. Here is Mel’s message to help raise donations for her trip. “When I am in Ghana I will be helping out amongst the centre’s local staff. As they always have their […]
Unexplained Wealth Order Issued
The wife of a millionaire bank owner, jailed for fraud, has been subject to the first Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) in the UK. UWOs were introduced to UK law in 2017 following increasing anxieties that the UK housing market is being exploited to facilitate money-laundering on an unprecedented scale. In fact, the National Crime Agency […]
Government Invest £10m in AI Development
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s regulators pioneer fund have released £10 million to fifteen regulators tasked with realising the vision of solidifying the UK as a world leader in regulatory innovation within the legal sector. Included within the fifteen regulators, the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) have been given £700,000 that will make […]
Thirdfort Fight Conveyancing Fraud – Funding Announcement
Thirdfort is delighted to announce a £400,000 pre-seed funding round led by Alex Chesterman (founder of Zoopla) and Lawyer Checker (leading legal anti-fraud specialist). The funding will be used principally to grow the team to develop the platform ahead of product roll-out. Other investors in this funding round include a range of successful entrepreneurs and […]
CLC Responds To Regulatory Movement
Following the news that three firms have taken advantage of the Solicitor Regulation Authority’s (SRA) removal of the six month run-off indemnity insurance for firms leaving the regulator by joining the CLC, it has emerged that more firms are also doing the same. The CLC have announced that at least three more firms have made […]
London’s Commercial Property Transactions More Than Double In Three Years
The number of commercial transactions has grown by 114% from 7,445 in 2014 to 15,939 in 2017, with 2018 set to be another bumper year Commercial transactions now account for almost one in four (23%) property transactions in London in 2018, up from one in ten in 2014 The value of London’s annual commercial transactions […]
How Will Blockchain Change Property Auctions?
There has been a lot of discussion in the property sector about how Blockchain technology is shaking things up. Most of it focused on how Blockchain could revolutionise the Land Registry, see an end to property fraud, and facilitate quick sales and smart contracts. But there is another aspect of the property sector that is […]
Promoting Diversity Still An Issue In Legal Sector
A recent report has contradicted the long-held assumption that law firms are becoming more socially diverse at entry level which filters through overtime to a more socio-economically diverse management structure. The report, carried out by The Bridge Group by collaborating with eight leading law firms, actually highlights that people from a more deprived background are […]
New Housing Measures Announced
Using the Conservative Conference as a springboard to reveal their latest policy ideas, the government have announced new housing reforms that aim to support homebuyers, ensure that the country has the new housing stock it needs by meeting housing expectations and improving building safety. Following recent unrest with new build leaseholds, it was viewed that […]
London Housing Crisis Driving Workers North
New analysis has found that 28% of companies in London have seen staff leave because of soaring housing prices. According to the latest CBI/CBRE London Business Survey, 66% of respondents said that housing costs and availability are having a negative impact on the recruitment of entry-level staff. That’s a record high. When the question was […]
Conveyancing Firms Benefiting From SRA Run-off Insurance Cover Change
Three firms have taken advantage of the lapsed SRA indemnity insurance run-off requirement by moving from the Solicitor Regulation Authority (SRA) to the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC). In recent months, conveyancing specialists Fidler & Pepper Lawyers, AV Rillo and Clutton Cox have all made the move to the CLC, citing the specialist regulator as […]
LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions Partners with tmgroup
LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions Partners with tmgroup to Offer Market Leading Conveyancing Data and Search Platform to Lexis® Visualfiles™ Customers Partnership in keeping with LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions’ philosophy to integrate Visualfiles with the best third-party technologies for customers LexisNexis® Enterprise Solutions, has added another partner to its network of third-party applications for Lexis® Visualfiles™. Integration with […]