Houses selling 11 days’ faster than last year
The average time it takes to sell a property in the UK is currently 58 days, 11 days less than the same period last year. According to the latest “Rate of Sale” report from the Post Office the regional variation in sale times is also showing signs of dissolving. Properties in Liverpool and Southend-on-Sea properties […]
Firms warned to confirm insurance position
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has warned firms that have not declared their insurance position that they are breaching regulations and face enforcement action. Firms had until the 6th November to inform the SRA if they had failed to secure new professional indemnity insurance cover and were entering the second section of the new Extended […]
OneSearch Direct Launch ‘Assured’ Service with Residential Abortive Transaction Insurance
OneSearch Direct, the leading provider of private local searches in England and Wales, have announced the launch of their new OneSearch Assured service. Announcing the launch, Ronnie Park, Managing Director, said: “Making the buying and selling process as simple, safe and stress free as possible has always been our number one priority. Our market leading […]
Rise in House Sales Continuing to Fuel Conveyancing Market, Claims BCL Legal
Thanks to various factors, including the Help to Buy Scheme and a rise in house sales, BCL Legal now has a variety of conveyancing roles at various levels across the North West. Demand is expected to stay strong over the coming months as the economic recovery continues to take hold. Take a look at the […]
LFS announce 2014 seminars
LFS has announced three more regional seminars for 2014 following on from a series of sold out seminars in 2013. So far they have arranged events in Bristol on 18th February, London on the 4th March and Leeds on the 11th March. The speakers and topics to be covered in 2014 include; Paul Hajek — […]
QualitySolicitors Talbots strengthens Commercial Property team
Midlands-based QualitySolicitors Talbots has further strengthened its Business Services Team with the appointment of one of the region’s leading commercial property lawyers. Clare Tierney is a commercial property solicitor with close on twenty years experience gained across the region, and has a special interest in the Leisure and Retail sectors Director of Business Services at […]
ETSOS and market on the up
The growing positive sentiment coming out of the conveyancing sector would seem to be supported by the latest figures coming out of search specialist ETSOS. The leading aggregator has reported a 28% increase in orders year to date, compared to 2012; while its third quarter sales performance has seen an impressive increase of 65% over […]
Home buyers on the rise
According to the latest figures from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) the average number of registered house hunters increased from 314 in September to 332 in October. This corresponds to an increase in the average number of sales agreed per branch from 9 in September to 10 in October. The imbalance between supply […]
Widespread improvement in market conditions
The latest RICS Residential Market Survey shows that the gap between supply and demand is at its highest imbalance since May 2009. This imbalance between supply and demand has led to a widespread improvement in market conditions. Pricing expectations are good, with growth expected over the next quarter across all regions, except the North. RICS […]
SME firms performing well
According to research from chartered accountants HW Fisher & Company SME legal firms are recovering well from the impacts of the recession. In an annual poll of 75 SME law firms in London and South East England profits were up a record 17% from last year. The Legal Services Act (LSA) has so far had […]
Lending reaches highest level since 2007
The latest CML data has shown that lending during the third quarter of 2013 was at its highest quarterly level since 2007. Gross UK mortgage lending was £16.2bn in September, despite a fall of 14% in monthly lending from August to September this was a 21% year-on-year increase. Gross lending for the third quarter of […]
Fall in repossessions and arrears
According to the latest data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders the number of mortgages in arrears and the number of repossessions fell in the third quarter of the year. The total number of mortgages in arrears was down from 154,900 in the second quarter of the year to 149,400 mortgages. This represents 1.33% of […]
Chief Financial Ombudsman steps down
The board of the Financial Ombudsman service has announced that Chief Ombudsman Natalie Cenney has stepped down after almost four years with the service. During her time in post the service expanded to deal with complaints about the mis-selling of loan insurance by banks. As well as this the service became a Sunday Times “top […]
Which? urges caution on Help to Buy
In response to the Government declaring Help to Buy a success Which? Mortgage Advisers has urged first-time buyers to be aware of the full range of options available to them. Which? are keen to stress to first-time buyers that lenders not involved in the scheme are also offering competitive mortgages and that there are alternatives […]
BSA Chairman questions need for Help to Buy
Speaking at the BSA Annual lunch last Thursday, David Cutter, BSA Chairman and Group Chief Executive of the Skipton Building Society questioned whether the Help to Buy scheme was needed. He noted that so far no building societies have signed-up to the scheme, whereas all the major banks and a few challenger banks have done […]
Campaign group describes Help to Buy as “ponzi scheme”
According to analysis of housing market figures by PricedOut, a campaign for affordable house prices, first-time buyers would be better off renting than buying a house under Help to Buy. They claim that interest rates are so high under the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme that the monthly repayments for the average first-time buyer […]
CML lays out radical panel management plans
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has informed the Law Society that some lenders will be writing to panel firms this month to inform them of plans to move to a single supplier of panel management data. The CML confirms Lender Exchange is likely to launch in early 2014, a single panel management data and […]
Affirmative Finance Ltd v Pearson & Anor [2013] EWLandRA 2013_0171 (16 September 2013)
Introduction This case raised a very interesting issue as to whether there was an effective agreement to create a charge. It will be of interest to conveyancers and banking and finance litigators for the helpful resume of the law on security. As will be noted by practitioners on 1 July 2013 the Land Registration division […]
CML chairman calls for Help to Buy exit strategy
Speaking at the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ annual conference the CML Chairman stressed the importance of a planned exit strategy from the Help to Buy scheme. He said that the scheme needed to be time-limited rather than a permanent fixture of the housing market. Chairman Nigel Terrington, CEO, Paragon Group, talked about the need for […]
Help to Buy scheme confusing consumers
The Building Societies Association (BSA) has said that 43% of active first time buyers and other home movers are confused about the benefit the Government’s Help to Buy scheme will give them. Their research showed that 31% of consumers who are looking to buy or move do not know whether there are differences between mortgages […]