August Market Trend Data from Land Registry
The August data shows an annual price increase of 4.2% which takes the average property value in England and Wales to £184,682. Monthly house prices up 0.5% since July 2015. The regional data indicates that: The region with the most significant annual price increase is the East with a movement of 8.4% London experienced the greatest […]
Awarding excellence in the conveyancing industry
This year marked the 7th anniversary of the prestigious Law Firm Services (LFS) Conveyancing Conference and Awards Ceremony, held on 17th September at the Milton Keynes Football Stadium. The event drew solicitors and conveyancers from across the country to visit the main conference, which gained delegates 5 CPD points, followed by the Awards Ceremony where […]
Study shows huge opportunity to increase conveyancing fees
A new study from TM Group has revealed that almost a third of conveyancers failed to provide an estimate when contacted by phone to ask for their conveyancing fees. The findings, part of TM Group’s ongoing research programme, were made in their most recent mystery shopper exercise looking into the service offered by conveyancers when […]
80% of LFS award winners use Lawyer Checker
Thursday 17th September saw the annual prestigious Law Firm Services (LFS) Conference enjoy its 2015 outing at the Milton Keynes MK DON F.C stadium and conference centre. The day was an engaging and busy one, where Lawyer Checker proudly sponsored and exhibited the event getting to meet and engage with many conveyancers and professionals from […]
Brownfield sites and the Housing Bill
The Government is looking to use the Housing Bill to reduce the amount of legislation for the development of brownfield sites – arguing that legislation intended to protect both environment and building are unnecessary, ‘liberalising’ the planning system (1). This is with a view to building 200,000 homes by 2020, a number well below Labour’s […]
Landmark’s Risk Assessed Land Register logs 2,600 football pitches worth of environmentally assessed and ‘passed’ land in its first six months
Since launching the Risk Assessed Land Register (RALR) six months ago, Landmark Information Group, the UK’s leading supplier of digital mapping, property and environmental risk information, has captured the details of over 2,800 hectares of land (6,900+ acres) that has been assessed and deemed not to be liable for action under Part 2A of the […]
Strongest summer on record for FTBs as sales pick up 25% post-election
August sees 30,200 first-time buyer sales – an increase of more than a quarter (27.4%) compared to May Transaction levels hold steady on July at a post-recession record and the highest total since August 2007 New changes make the last three months the strongest summer in eight years, with almost 90,000 sales in total But […]
Would you like tea with that? (Conveyancer Slater – Tweet of the Week)
The Tweet of the Week sounds as though they are speaking from experience. Let’s hope they have an alternative option to dunk in their tea, otherwise this conveyancer could end up in some hot water! I have encountered some incompetence in my time, but I’ve found a conveyancing solicitor who absolutely takes the biscuit. — […]
Award winning Kent solicitors reaping the benefits of electronic file management
Boys & Maughan Solicitors has contracted with Linetime to roll out Liberate Case Management to all its 90 staff. A long term user of Linetime for conveyancing matters, the firm has expanded its use of the system to cover all its private client and commercial work. Based in East Kent, Boys & Maughan has five […]
Bird & Bird liable for £2 million
Leading solicitors Bird & Bird has just been found liable in the High Court for a £2 million breach of duty after failing to advise their client of a planning application close to a £25 million property. Given the huge liability exposure, Paul Addison from DevAssist asks: “How much more do you need to convince […]
End of summer sees property transactions blossoming
The HMRC Property Transactions report for August 2015 reveals: The provisional seasonally adjusted UK property transaction count for August 2015 was 106,480 residential and 10,880 non-residential transactions. The seasonally adjusted estimate of the number of residential property transactions increased by 3.1% between July 2015 and August 2015. This month’s seasonally adjusted figure is 5.7% higher […]
Remortgagors withdraw record amounts of cash from homes as affordability grows
Average amount of equity (cash) withdrawn by remortgaging tops £35,500 per customer – a new historic record and almost double the amount seen in January Improving wages means better affordability despite average mortgage interest rates rising for first time in nine months Remortgage affordability relative to that of purchase mortgages best for three years Remortgage […]
UK summer property market in figures
UK property figures released for June, July and August show an active market as house prices rise, lending increases and demand stays strong. Seasonal Round-up August house prices increase by 9% year-on-year (Halifax) Average UK property price in August (when bought with a mortgage) was £264,250 (myhomemove) Mortgage lending increases 9.3% year-on-year (e.surv) Average LTV […]
Negligence claims concerning property advice on the increase. Lessons learnt?
Over the past few months there have been several claims against law firms resulting from their involvement in property transactions. The last financial crisis, and its effect on property values, meant that many lenders suffered losses for which they sought recompense from their solicitors. The present cases are not all lender-focused, but suggest that claims […]
New process saves time for all
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has made it easier and quicker for firms to apply for a change in status by cutting form filling by a third. New slimline application forms have been introduced for firms that need to apply for authorisation for a change of legal entity, or for LDPs electing to be licensed. […]
The ESTAS launches brand new category for conveyancers
The ESTAS, one of the largest award schemes in the UK residential property industry, has launched a new category for conveyancing firms. The ESTAS, sponsored by Zoopla Property Group, recognises firms providing the best customer service based purely on ratings provided by the customers themselves. Estate agents, mortgage brokers and now conveyancers have the chance […]
Air quality – what does it mean for conveyancers?
Here at Landmark, we believe that the topic of Air Quality relating to commercial property transactions (and subsequent planning applications), is something that we are going to be hearing a lot more about over the coming weeks and months. The reason for this is that the Government is currently working on a major new strategy […]
Rental homes’ supply diminishes
The number of available houses to rent falls in August whilst demand rises The number of landlords increasing rents for tenants has decreased from last month Association of Residential Letting Agents launches August Private Rental Sector Report The number of residential properties available to rent has decreased, according to the Association of Residential Letting Agents […]
August 2015 Transaction Data from Land Registry
Land Registry completes 1,382,803 applications South East tops the table of regional applications with 317,872 Birmingham tops the table of local authority applications with 20,837 The Transaction Data shows Land Registry completed over 1,382,800 applications from its customers in August. This includes 1,350,573 applications by account customers, of which: 341,213 were applications in respect of […]
Hat trick of Awards for Howells Solicitors including UK Conveyancing Firm of the Year 2015
Howells Solicitors have achieved a first for a Welsh law firm and won three categories at the conveyancing industries prestigious annual Law Firm Services (LFS) Awards including the premier ‘Overall Conveyancing Firm of the Year’. Attending the ceremony on Thursday evening at the Stadium MK in Milton Keynes, Mark Hobbs, Managing Partner of the law […]