New SRA CEO starts today
Paul Philip, the new Chief Executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will take up the reins at the Authority today (Monday 3 February). Mr Philip joins the SRA from the General Medical Council, taking over from Antony Townsend who has spent seven years in the position. The SRA has said his immediate priority will […]
Estate Agents raise £13 million for charity
Whilst a consumer perceptions survey has shown that estate agents are not viewed as generous by the public, the profession donated £13million to good causes in 2013. They aim to improve on this in 2014 and take the total raised to £14.6million. Despite this, estate agents were ranked in the bottom three of the survey […]
COPSO Challenges Michael Fallon
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) has today called for Michael Fallon to provide clarification of his long terms intentions for the Land Registry. The Minister of State for Business and Energy issued a written statement on 23rd January announcing that a consultation will be launched into a restructuring of the Land Registry. The […]
SLC update on ‘dating service’
The Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) has said its ‘dating service’, which formally launched its in November 2013, has already had success in matching up firms. The service is designed to bring together law firms that may have an interest in acquiring, merging or selling their conveyancing practices. Since its launch, the SLC has introduced […]
CLC recruiting Council members
The CLC has announced that they are looking for new council members to help move the organisation forward. They are looking for candidates with strong backgrounds in one or more of the following: – finance and corporate services – academic or policy work in the legal services or property markets – consumer advocacy To find […]
BOLD Group highlights SRA Scam Alert only scratches the surface
Rob Hailstone of the Bold Group has warned his members of a potential problem that could damage the brand of any solicitor. He says “Last Friday the SRA issued the following Scam alert: Warning: Humphries Kirk LLP The SRA has received information that a number of fraudulent solicitors’ firms appear on the website http://www.solicitors-barristers.co.uk/dorset/poole. The […]
IPSA starts Judicial Review against Land Registry
Following the latest Land Registry consultation to considerably broaden its powers relating to property generally IPSA, The Association of Independent Personal Search Agents, have served Judicial Review proceedings criticising the short period of consultation being 7 rather than 12 weeks but has also the following stark warning to conveyancers. Christian Lister, IPSA Chairman on issuing […]
Commercial First Business Ltd v Atkins [2012] EWHC 4388 (Ch) (13 July 2012)
This case before His Honour Judge Hodge QC raised a novel and important issue for lenders and borrowers in the context of commercial property. Given the Judgment is lengthy the reader is referred to the same .This article will concentrate on the legal issues outlined below. As is common in most well drafted charges, a […]
Leasehold management company delays criticised
Management companies are slowing down leasehold property purchases by taking too much time to deliver necessary information to solicitors, according to the Conveyancing Association (CA). In a bid to speed up property transactions, members of the CA met with MPs in Westminster last week to suggest changes to the law which will set out a […]
‘HIP Replacement’ Options
Ronnie Park, Managing Director of OneSearch Direct, the largest local authority data search company in the UK, today issued the following statement following the recent RICS-commissioned report which calls for Home Reports. “Estate agents are now covered by the Consumer Protection Regulations (CPRs), which replaces the Property Mis-descriptions Act as the key legislative framework for […]
Think Different….
Think Different… A little over six years ago I joined London’s largest estate agent with the primary role of developing, launching and managing their own conveyancing service. Perhaps not the greatest challenge ever to face mankind but a challenge none the less. Unfortunately this was their third and last attempt to launch a conveyancing service […]
Law Society clarifies Find a Solicitor reliability
Following the SRA disclosure of the list of uninsured firms the Law Society clarifies the role of the “Find a Solicitor” website. We have highlighted a number of times that many solicitors feel that before they send conveyancing completion funds to the other side they only need to check the Law Society’s Find a Solicitor […]
2013 – 91% of lenders changed CML Conveyancing Handbook
Lexsure previously known a Conveycentric this week produced information showing how careful conveyancers need to be. Not only did nearly all lenders changePart 2 of their instructions to conveyancers in 2013 they are also increasing the frequency of changes they are making. Lexsure’s review shows that 91% of CML lenders amended their Part II policies […]
Research confirms rising expectations from conveyancing clients.
Research by myhomemove, the UK’s leading provider of mover conveyancing services, has revealed that the length of time between ‘exchange and completion’ when buying or selling a property, has dramatically decreased in recent years. The traditional industry standard of 28 days has been shortened in 85% of cases to within 14 days, and in nearly […]
Today's Conveyancer talks to Financial Eye's David Thorpe
David is Director of Financial Eye. A partner of Legal Eye, Financial Eye has a product designed to help COFAs deal with the increasing burden of regulatory requirements. David has over 30 years’ experience in the industry having started off in 1983 as a conveyancer handling plot sales for Heron Homes. Before starting up Financial […]
Rowlinsons pick up more awards
Rowlinsons Solicitors recently picked up two awards at the Sunday Times Estate Agency of the Year Awards. The solicitors practice took home the Gold Award for Best Large Conveyancer of the Year and Overall UK Conveyancer of the Year Award at the December awards. Earlier in 2013 the Cheshire based firm was recognised at the […]
GroundSure enhance Energy Report
GroundSure has announced new datasets have been added to their GroundSure Energy report to provide even more comprehensive analysis on installations and infrastructure. The report now contains the following additional features: – Location of existing and proposed solar energy farms (PV arrays) – unique to GroundSure – Large scale and strategic gas and oil pipelines […]
Remortgage lending up 44%
Remortgage lending in December rose to £4.16bn, up 43.5% from the same time last year and up 1.5% from November. The latest figures from LMS reveal that monthly gross remortgage lending increased by £61m in December, to £4.16bn. The CML has also reported that total gross mortgage lending held steady at £17.0bn in December. As […]
First-time buyers at six year high
For the first time since October 2007 the number of monthly first-time buyers topped 29,000 with 29,100 in December. According to the latest First Time Buyer Opinion Barometer from LSL Property Services the average deposit for a first-time buyer fell to £26,533 in December, 3.6% lower than a year before. Despite these falling deposits, first-timers […]
Analysis of dwelling tenure transformation
Home.co.uk has assessed the rise of the UK’s private rental sector in the wake of falling housing stock. They put the a transformation of tenure in the UK as having been kicked off by the Right to Buy scheme, passed in the Housing Act 1980. They say that in the last 20 years, the subsequent […]