Land Registry cancels marketing tender – 24th May 2010
PR Week has reported that Land Registry has cancelled a marketing tender and contract that it had planned to create a single marketing strategy for its whole business operation. Today’s Conveyancer has spoken to a spokesperson at Land Registry and understands that this cancelled tender is part of the review of operations in light of […]
HIPs are history – 20th May 2010
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Housing Minister Grant Shapps today announced that with immediate effect, they are suspending the requirement for homeowners to provide a Home Information Pack (HIP). Pending primary legislation which would be required for a permanent abolition, Mr Pickles today laid an Order suspending HIPs with immediate effect. This action follows […]
Ashley King – Failure to Consult on Suspension of HIPS a disgrace – 20th May 2010
Ashley King Managing Director of Simply HIPS and a key industry figure in the development of the exchange ready HIPs has expressed his "utter disappointment" at what he considers to be the disgraceful way in which the Conservatives have suspended HIPS. Ashley King stated that Grant Shapps as Shadow Housing Minister had promised not to […]
The Home Information Pack (Suspension Order) 2010 and related EPC Regulation – 20th May 2010
A link to the full order The Home Information Pack (Suspension) Order 2010 No. 1455 And The Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2010 No.1456
High LTV Mortgages Return to the Market – 17th May 2010
Last week the Post Office launched a 90% loan to value mortgage. Britannia and Coop also have similar products. As of tomorrow Skipton Building Society is reported to be launching a 95% loan to value mortgage. The Skipton website has no information on any mortgage products awaiting the launch of the new mortgage range. […]
SRA New Rules Enable Fines on Solicitors – 17th May 2010
From the 1st June 2010 the LSB has approved the new SRA’s Disciplinary (Procedure) Rules [2010] The SRA will be able to exercise its new statutory powers to give written rebukes and/or impose a penalty of up to £2000 where there has been professional misconduct or a breach of regulatory obligations. The standard of proof […]
LSB Report – Referral Fees Save Money for Consumers – 17th May 2010
The Legal Services Board has produced its long awaited report into the impact of referral fees on the market for legal services with what some may see as surprising conclusions. In a detailed report it concludes that there is no evidence that referral fees increase the price of conveyancing for consumers and do not reduce […]
House Purchase Numbers Substantially Increase in March says CML – 17th May 2010
The CML monthly report for mortgages indicate 45,000 purchase loans in March with 28,000 remortgages. This is a significant month on month increase and year on year increase for house puchases. The home purchase mortgage figures indicated a 25% growth on February 2010 and the remortgage figures up 23% with first time buyer activity being […]
Rightmove Sample Indicates a Rise in Unsold Houses – 17th May 2010
Rightmove House Price Index for May has measured a substantial jump in unsold stock per estate agency branch increasing from 68 to 71 between March and April a three month trend of increasing stock. Given the election and promise in the Con Lib pack to abolish HIPs the future of housing stock and prices […]
SRA due to meet the ABI over PII rules – 13th May 2010
Malcolm Tarling a Spokesman for the Association of British Insurers has informed Today’s Conveyancer that there are on going discussions between the ABI and the Solicitors Regulatory Authority to try to address the growing concerns associated with the solicitors professional indemnity insurance market. A meeting next week would hopefully constructively address some of the concerns […]
Shapps appointed as Housing Minister – 13th May 2010
Grant Shapps has been appointed as Housing Minister. Shapps is well known for his clear dislike of HIPs and has not missed an opportunity to vow make it one of his highest priorities if he were to become Housing Minister to abolish HIPS within a few weeks of a Conservative Government coming to power. […]
Lessons from the Law Society Survey in Professional Indemnity Insurance Renewal – 8th May 2010
The Law Society Survey into last year’s Professional Indemnity Insurance renewals has been reported on. It reveals some interesting results that all solicitors should consider. Despite all the reports about issues for firms 4 out of 5 appeared to have “no difficulty” in renewing their PI, however 3 out of 5 indicated that premium prices […]
PCCB Cancels Registration of HIP Firm – 8th May 2010
The Property Code Compliance Board suspended HIP Save Ltd and HIPserve (UK) Ltd has cancelled the registration as a subscriber to the HIP Code of Practice for failure to comply with PCCB registration rules. Back on the 12th March the PCCB issued a press release stating that due to persistent failings to comply with Board’s […]
20% Off Offer To Redeem Some Mortgages – 5th May 2010
According to The Telegraph, Toscafund, a financial management firm has been inviting some borrowers to redeem mortgages at between 15% and 20% below the "normal" redemption figure. Apparently Toscafund has been busy spending £255M on buying up portfolios of mortgages at below their normal value to enable banks to raise capital. The Telegraph indicates […]
Exit Polls Predict Uncertainty for Conveyancers – 6th May 2010
Early indications from results in the exit polls and first two results show a swing to the Conservatives but without a sufficient number of seats to form a majority. For Conveyancers that could potentially result in political and economic uncertainty. Initially Gordon Brown may remain as Prime Minister until he resigned or was able to […]
90% FTB tracker mortgage at 4.49% HSBC – 29th March 2010
HSBC has reduced by 0.5% the rates for first time buyers on its tracker mortgages for those with a 10% deposit. It wasn’t that long ago when first time buyers needed to put down considerably larger deposits in order to have any type of mortgage. The lifetime tracker is currently at 4.49% made up of […]
Choosing a conveyancer online growing – 29th March 2010
How the public choose a lawyer is the subject of further research released this week. The Gazette has reported that research commissioned by www.legallybetter.com has found that just over a fifth of clients would use the internet to find their conveyancer. As the internet has changed everything from buying books to purchasing tickets for […]
WARNING – Quinn goes into Administration – 1st April 2010
On Thursday 1st April what would otherwise have been a really bad April fools joke was confirmed as a reality. The Financial Serivce Authority announced that Quinn the Irish Insurance company had been placed into administration. An application to the High Court and appointment of two joint adminstrators signalled risk for many solicitors firms. The […]
Housing Transactions rise according to HMRC – 25th March 2010
HMRC month residential property transaction figures indicate that the last quarter and the last month have had considerably more housing transactions than for the same period in 2009. Residential property transactions in February 2010 for England were 51,000 transactions against a prior year figure of 37,000 for February 2009 though both these figures remain considerably […]
Stamp Duty change -25th March 2010
Stamp Duty threshold changes for first time buyers are effective for completions today. First time buyers will have the threshold for stamp duty raised to £250,000 but it remains a little unclear how a first time buyer will prove the requirement that they have never owned a property solely or jointly anywhere in the […]
