Capita to acquire Optima Legal Services
Capita plc has announced that it has reached a conditional agreement to acquire the English business of Optima Legal Services Limited (‘Optima Legal’), including its subsidiary Cost Advocates. Optima Legal provides legal services for property transactions, debt recovery and litigation services, while Cost Advocates provides legal costs drafting and negotiation services. The firm has offices […]
SRA launches Practising Certificate renewals
The SRA has today launched the 2013 round of Practising Certificate renewals, with a closing date of Thursday, 31 October. They are offering a range of support measures to help those completing applications. These include; – Provision of detailed guidance for authorised signatories and organisation contacts completing bulk renewals – A readiness checklist – Updated […]
Book Review: Conveyancing Handbook
The invaluable Conveyancing Handbook has been updated and is now in its 20th Edition. Once again Frances Silverman and her team have produced an excellent piece of work. The book is useful not only for essential guidance for conveyancers, but also as a measure of good practice when things go wrong. However busy you may […]
Gross mortgage lending continues to grow
Gross UK mortgage lending in July was 29% up from last July, and 12% from June, taking the total to £16.7 billion. The Council of Mortgage Lenders figures showed total home-owner house purchase lending continued to grow with 57,400 house purchase loans advanced in July, an increase of 9% on June and up by 21% […]
Berliner PII cover uncertainty
Firms who took out Professional Indemnity cover with firm Berliner should have received notification that there is uncertainty as to their cover for the forthcoming year. Berliner took over clients from troubled firm Balva, meaning a double whammy of bad news for some firms who will now face a rush to put alternative arrangements in […]
Scottish conveyancing firms reject Separate Representation
One of largest conveayncing firms in Scotland, McVey and Murricane (MM) has authored a report arguing that Separate Representation would be a disaster for the Scottish legal profession and the Scottish homebuying public. The news follows the results of the Law Society of Scotland’s separate representation consultation which showed opinions were highly split when it […]
RICS suggests controversial 5% cap on house price inflation
RICS have sparked debate by suggesting the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee should consider limiting annual house price inflation to 5% in order to prevent “another housing bubble, reckless bank lending and a dangerous build up in household debt”. Several industry figures quickly reacted to the proposal. Paul Smith, CEO of haart estate agents, […]
Legal Service Consumer Panel and CLC address conveyancers
Representatives of the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) talked last week to conveyancers about the current and future state of regulation. At the quarterly meeting of the Conveyancing Association (CA) Elisabeth Davies, Chair of the LSCP, outlined the panel’s recent proposals to simplify legal services regulation to focus […]
Record month for myhomemove
The UK’s largest conveyancer myhomemove has revealed that it experienced a record August, with 3938 completions in 22 working days. This breaks the firm’s own record for the most transactions ever completed in a month. Doug Crawford, CEO of myhomemove said: "August has proved a phenomenal month for myhomemove, allowing us to break our own […]
Fake Land Registry emails contain malware
A number of emails hiding a piece of malware have been circulating, purporting to come from the Land Registry. The emails inform recipients that some fees will be collected by the Land Registry from their accounts. They have been reported to include the following wording: “This is notification that Land Registry will debit 202.00 GBP […]
Government offer £400m private rental investment opportunity
Housing Minister Mark Prisk has offered a huge investment opportunity as part of the £1bn Build to Rent scheme. The scheme will operate alongside £10bn in government housing guarantees and support developers and investors who want to move into the private rental market. In July, the first Build to Rent deal was signed, which will […]
House prices reach record high
Average house prices have reached £233,776 following an increase of £7,275 over the last 12 months. According to the latest House Price Index issued by LSL house prices increased 0.4% in Agust from July signally a new record high. The number of sales was over 70,000 for the second month in a row. Richard Sexton, […]
Vince Cable warns against Help to Buy
The Business Secretary this week warned that the Government’s help-to-buy scheme needed more careful consideration. He told Sky News “we don’t want a new housing bubble” and expressed concerns that in some areas of the country, for example London and the South East, that there are already “serious housing inflationary pressures”. Mr Cable said: "We […]
Barratt Developments PLC show strong yearly results
Barratt Developments PLC had today issued its final results for the year ended 30 June 2013, showing an increase in group revenue of 12.2%. This brings total group revenue to £2,606.2m up from £2,323.4m in 2012. The group saw 13,663 completions over the year, up from 12,857 in 2012. Barratt’s groups profit before tax and […]
SRA considers new consumer engagement strategy
The Solicitors Regulation Authority Board is meeting this week to consider a two-year action plan to help ensure consumers have the information they need when they use legal services. The plan includes the launch of new consumer-facing website called Legal Choices which will provide a one-stop shop of factual advice and opportunities for consumers to […]
Zoopla considering stock market float
Zoopla, the UK’s fastest-growing property website, is considering a float which according to The Sunday Times could see it valued between £1bn and £1.3bn. Zoopla has appointed Credit Suisse to “explore further strategic opportunities as we continue to grow”. If the figures are correct they would see Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman getting around £100m, thanks […]
Major Conveyancing Conference less than 3 weeks away!
The LFS Conveyancing Conference is nearly upon us. This is the only major conference of 2013 specifically designed for those who run major Conveyancing departments. Richard Mathias of LFS says — “ Its been a busy (but welcome) year for the Conveyancing industry but law firms should ensure they keep abreast of what is going […]
Record Performance Fuels ETSOS Sales Expansion
Conveyancing search supermarket ETSOS has announced an expansion of its business development team on the back of a record half-year. Paul Coombes, who was business development manager for Pannone’s Connect2Law network for four years and most recently with Blackhurst Budd Solicitors, joins in the newly created role of sales and marketing director. He will oversee […]
Students least likely to miss rental payments
The National Landlords Association (NLA) has revealed that students are amongst the most reliable tenants, with only 38% of student landlords having experienced arrears in last year. This is compared to 59% of landlords letting to blue collar workers and 71% letting to benefit recipients. Student tenants offer the highest rental yields at 6.7% compared […]
25,000 take up government housing schemes
The latest government figures show that over 25,000 new homeowners have been created by government-backed schemes. 3,749 people have taken up the industry-led NewBuy scheme since its launch in March 2012. During the first four months of the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme over 3,000 sales and 10,000 reservations have been made. Right to […]