NHBC announces new partnership with underwriting specialists
NHBC registered builders and affiliated conveyancing solicitors are now able to take advantage of a range of discounted legal indemnity and title insurance products thanks to a new partnership with DUAL Asset Underwriting. The deal gives builders and conveyancers registered with NHBC, the UK’s leading insurance and warranty provider for new homes, a 10% discount […]
Ochresoft proves right road for Churchers Bolitho Way
Legal workflow specialist, Ochresoft, has announced details of its latest client win in the conveyancing market. Leading Hampshire firm Churchers Bolitho Way is set to deploy Ochresoft’s Intelliworks software across its six offices, the culmination of a long-term evaluation of Intelliworks and LexisNexis Solcase following the merger of Churchers and Bolitho Way. Managing partner Ian […]
E-Plus delivers dashboard for solicitors and estate agents
As part of their ongoing development plan E-Plus has launched a new pipeline dashboard for conveyancing cases, which can be accessed by both law firms and estate agents. Law firms can view according to quote, instruction and completed cases their top referrers of conveyancing work at company, branch and staff member level. Estate agents can […]
Hoowla launches OC1 Application for Official Copies as part of continued Land Registry Integration
Hoowla has announced that the next phase in their integration with Land Registry Business Gateway has gone live. Clients can now request Official Copies of the Register from within Hoowla’s conveyancing case management software. Hoowla automatically provides the title number and tenure for properties via the Search by Property Description Service. This information along with […]
INNSA Conference and CPD points
The Invasive Non Native Specialists Association (INNSA) is holding its annual conference in Manchester on 24th March. The Infrastructure Act which hit the statute books last month places legal obligations on property owners with invasive species, including Japanese Knotweed, on their land. This will clearly impact on the home buying and selling process and with […]
Spotlight on…dealing with search results
Lawyer Checker is a database with historic footprints of transactional conveyancing. It therefore offers users information on the transactional history of a conveyancing firm’s client account number. This method is unique to LC and the only real way to ensure your client’s money is going to a bona fide recipient firm client account. Passionate about […]
First time buyers dealt a “body blow” by the mortgage drought
The overwhelming majority of UK adults say that the difficulty in getting mortgages is a serious problem, with those hardest hit being first time buyers and those trying to take a first step up the property ladder, according to the 2015 Homeowner Survey by HomeOwners Alliance and myhomemove.* The difficulty of getting a mortgage or remortgaging […]
Conveyancer Slater – Tweet of the Week
Everything that’s wrong with the Scottish conveyancing system in one statement “I know it’s urgent, so I sent them a fax.” A FAX FFS! — Nick Green (@nickragreen) March 18, 2015
February Transaction Data from Land Registry
Land Registry completes 1,318,903 applications South East tops the table of regional applications with 306,172 Birmingham tops the table of local authority applications with 21,396 The Transaction Data shows Land Registry completed over 1,318,900 applications from its customers in February. This includes 1,273,401 applications by account customers, of which 292,796were applications in respect of registered […]
Pricing – Raise our prices? Are you crazy?
Many readers will have seen the recently published research by Morar Consulting for Veyo. To remind you, a few of the headlines were: 42% of consumers were unsure that they would use their conveyancer again; 60% found dealing with their solicitors the most stressful aspect of the process; 27% chose their conveyancer because of the […]
Marlborough Street £180
Great Marlborough Street is the second orange property on the Monopoly board. The road runs west to east in Soho in Westminster. At the western end it joins Regent Street and at the eastern end it becomes Noel Street. Carnaby Street runs off it. Great Marlborough Street’s construction began in the early 18th century. A […]
Budget 2015: ‘Movement on housing but more to be done’
The Chief Executive of one of the UK’s largest housing providers has cautiously welcomed Budget announcements aimed at tackling the housing crisis. Mark Henderson, Home Group chief executive, welcomed an announcement that 20 areas in England have been selected to become Housing Zones. Mr Henderson has been a long term advocate and campaigner of introducing […]
SRA investigates two firms over closure
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is investigating two solicitor firms that should have closed at the end of December last year because they did not have a valid insurance policy. The two are the only firms being investigated out of a total of 39 practising firms that entered the extended policy period (EPP) on 1 […]
Flood Re: Who, What, When, Where, Why
What is Flood Re? Following the Water Act 2014, the Government have announced their plans to introduce Flood Re, which is expected to roll out in July 2015. Flood Re is a not-for-profit financial scheme designed to ensure that affordable flood insurance is available for home owners in the most seriously affected areas. It is […]
Beware telephone scams, SRA warns
Don’t be duped into disclosing bank security information, the SRA is warning following reports of more firms being targeted by telephone con artists. The reports involve at least two incidents this month where telephone fraudsters posed as bank representatives. This follows on from four firms being targeted in November last year which prompted another SRA […]
What impact will the election have on the conveyancing market?
The UK housing market and the conveyancing sector is gearing up for a quieter period in the run-up to the General Election, but then a bounce back afterwards. This is normal of any election year but with the election too close to call in 2015, it will be a little worse. What the market and […]
BBC R4 give Fake Law firms top billing
March 4th saw the airing of Radio 4 consumer programme ‘You and Yours’, covering current affairs for the consumer, the headline topic was that of the ‘Fake Solicitor’. The programme revealed that as an industry scam alerts and reports of fraudsters have doubled in 2014 from the previous year. SRA Chief Executive Paul Phillip commented […]
Mortgage lending sees decline compared to the strength of 2014
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have released their latest data regarding UK mortgage lending for January 2015. Do conveyancers have reason to be cautious in the run up to the Election? These latest figures show both first time buyer and home mover lending declined by around a quarter compared to December 2014. The CML […]
myhomemove launches online case-management service for Remortgage clients
myhomemove, the UK’s leading provider of mover conveyancing services, has launched an online case-management service tailored for Remortgage clients. Remortgage eWay, launched in early March, is available to all clients who are recommended to myhomemove through its network of introducers. The new service allows remortgage clients 24/7 access to their case file via a smartphone, […]
Recession survivors see conveyancing volumes hit a ten-year high
Mergers and exits leave the average firm handling more transactions than in 2007 Seven firms completed 6,000+ transactions last year; just one did the same ten years ago Top 200 firms achieved a collective 36% market share, up from 26% at the last peak 4,800 firms – 80% of the total – left to fight […]