How to write a successful awards submission
Awards are an incredibly important part of recognising excellence and endeavour in industry. Alongside being recognised by your peers, awards serve to increase your profile, reinforce your reputation and can be an effective part of your overall marketing strategy in making both your professional and local communities aware of what sets you apart from your […]
British Conveyancing Awards announces Charity Partner
Ahead of the Early Bird Entry deadline on 11th November, the British Conveyancing Awards has announced The Conveyancing Foundation as Charity Partner for the event which returns on 21st March 2023. The British Conveyancing Awards were launched in 2021 in recognition of the “herculean” efforts of the industry throughout the pandemic and in response to […]
Wheels of change turn at SLC Conference
The 2022 annual SLC conference played host to a number of updates from regulators as conveyancers have been warned of changing expectations around continuing competence, client complaints and climate change. Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) Chair Dame Janet Paraskeva opened proceedings with an update from the regulator. CLC regulated firm revenues rose from £277m in […]
Review of the Year for Residential Conveyancers
Changes to CQS guidance came into effect in May 2022. With the year coming to a close, conveyancers must remain vigilant of the changes to meet key requirements of the 2022 Core Practice Management Standard (CPMS) this year and beyond. Ian Quayle, Chief Executive of IQ Legal Training, will join InfoTrack to review the key […]
Could blockchain help improve the conveyancer/estate agent relationship?
Having achieved seed investment in Move Genius, Founder Hannah Nicholson joins host David Opie to discuss the direction of travel of technology in the conveyancing space. Creating a seamless journey for home movers, estate agents and conveyancers seems to be the holy grail, but with myriad technology solutions, how can we achieve a more joined […]
15 years at the coalface of conveyancing searches
In the latest Today’s Conveyancer podcast David Opie is joined by Scott Reece. With a background in the installation of technology in medical practices, Scott (by his own admission) was somewhat of a novice when he and his wife joined the X-Press Legal Services network in 2007 in a complete change of scenery. Their franchise […]
Nearly 1m transactions from January to August 2022
Transaction volumes topped nearly 1.5m in 2021 and strong demand has continued to drive a buoyant market in 2022 with 908,509 residential transactions up to the end of August 2022 compared to 724,088 in the same period in the previous year. A conveyancing market report from IRN Legal Reports also indicated that the market value […]
NHQB launched to give greater protections to new build buyers
The New Homes Quality Board (NHQB) has been launched to ensure new build home buyers are granted more protections on their purchases. The NHQB has introduced a new Consumer Code which includes a broad range of requirements for developers to ease consumers fears in the house purchasing process. The Consumer Code was finalised following a […]
Conveyancing job numbers indicate decline in confidence
As advertised conveyancing jobs decline by 20% in one week, I ask: what does this mean for the conveyancing sector? As someone that wants to know what’s going on in the sector, I measure the number of jobs advertised for conveyancers in the UK every day to determine how confident conveyancers are. The results in […]
Tech survey highlights divide between “haves” and “have-nots”
A survey has found that over half of respondent conveyancing firms are falling behind when it comes to the adoption of legal technology. The Digital Conveyancing Maturity Index, an “industry-first assessment of the digital capabilities of law firms” say authors InfoTrack, looked at how conveyancing firms are adopting the raft of technology tools available to […]
Bank of England figures show boom in mortgage approvals for August
Latest figures show boom in mortgage approvals, reversing pattern shown in previous months Following a week of turmoil for the property industry the latest figures from the Bank of England (BoE) have shown that approvals increased in August, reversing a spiral of downward trends seen for the last several months. Figures show approvals increased to […]
Report shows average time to buy house increases to more than five months
Average time to buy now stands at 153 days compared to 124 days in 2019 The average time taken to complete a house purchase now takes longer than five months on average, according to research from Smoove’s Home Movers Report. Within the last six months, the average time taken to complete the home purchasing process […]
Diary of a high street conveyancer: 3rd October 2022
What a week – again! A week in which we were called on to dig deep and act as Agony Uncles and Aunts to our clients. Much of this week was not about property law, but a matter of reassuring clients as best we could. Some of the questions I have been asked this week […]
Defined by a lego character
In this latest Today’s Conveyancer podcast David Opie is joined by Head of Property at Dutton Gregory Solicitors Paul Sams. Paul is better known to so many of us as “Lego Paul”… with his regular Friday musings on social media providing an entertaining and insightful end to the week. Known for his use of alliterative […]
20 years of high standards of consumer protection and product quality
The CON29DW Residential was developed in 2002 and 20 years on still provides vital drainage and water information for homebuyers. In September 2021, DWSN and the Law Society launched an updated CON29DW Commercial which standardised the commercial questions and also made provision for questions regarding wayleaves and easements. DWSN sets out clear Standards that ensure […]
A week of turmoil for the property industry
Following the announcement last week of the immediate cutting of Stamp Duty Land Tax, alongside a host of other tax cutting measures announced by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, there has been significant conjecture about the state of the economy. The value of the Pound against the US Dollar hit a record low; the interest rate rise […]
HBSG has taken industry as far as it can without government intervention
The government needs to step in to mandate reforms that promise to revolutionise the home buying and selling process, a roundtable organised by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has heard. Speakers at the annual stakeholder event also highlighted recruitment issues in the conveyancing market, after the huge surge of work during the post-lockdown stamp […]
What they don’t tell you about setting up a conveyancing firm…
I set up Aconveyancing in 2017, after many years of working with firms of all sizes. My intention was to take the best parts of all those previous companies and merge them into my own. Sounds logical, right? Combine that with all the tips from experts, books and mentors and I’d have the recipe for […]
Podcast Special: Reaction to SDLT Cut
In this special episode of the Today’s Conveyancer Podcast host David Opie discusses the ins and outs of the announcement by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to cut Stamp Duty rates in the mini-budget on Friday 23rd September. David is joined by conveyancing industry veteran Lloyd Davies, Managing Director of Convey Law and Chairman of The Conveyancing […]
Property market downturn yet to materialise as transactions rocket in August
Homemovers not put off by interest rate hikes as Land Registry data shows boost in transactions during August Suggestions of an imminent downturn are beginning to unwind as UK residential property transactions soared once again in August 2022, despite successive interest rate rises over previous months making borrowing more expensive. According to the latest data […]