The Planning Inspectorate Strategic Plan 2021-2025
A new plan has been published that aims to respond and prepare the Planning Inspectorate for change and uncertainty, to enable the nation’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The Planning Inspectorate has published its Strategic Plan for 2021-2025 which sets out a new strategic vision for the organisation, to provide high quality, timely and efficient […]
Simplifying conveyancing: making our digital channels easier to use
Our absolute priority at HM Land Registry is to make our services faster for our customers. While improvements are being made through recruiting more caseworkers and streamlining our internal processes, we believe real improvement needs to ensure we are making the most of digital technology in the way we provide our land registration services. Our […]
3 Key Law Firm Trends for 2022 and 3 Key Legal Client Trends
There’s no doubt that the past two years have sparked an unprecedented level of change in both our personal and professional lives—and crucially, in how conveyancers run their conveyancing firms. The question that should be on every conveyancing firm’s mind is, what’s next? Practice management software company Clio can give some insight into this very […]
Equity release set to hit £4bn in 2021
The Equity Release Council have released its Q3 market statistics which show that homeowners are, for the first time, set to access over £4bn of property wealth via equity release. 2021 has seen £3.46bn released year to date, with Q3 lending up nearly one-fifth on 2020. The equity release market has seen lending exceed £1bn […]
Government to benefit from SDLT holiday boom
The Stamp Duty holiday contributed to the highest recorded revenues from Stamp Duty Land Tax over the Summer as receipts from property purchases hit £1.309 billion in July, the highest month on record and higher than the £1.196 billion taken in March. But it, while it could have been so much higher, the government could […]
AML update – the focus on AML is going nowhere anytime soon!
Our latest quarterly update webinar started with a view of the current anti-money laundering landscape including: The release of the Pandora papers, which have shown even more the extent to which the mega-rich employ different ways in which to hide their money and avoid paying tax on it; of particular concern to authorities is the […]
De-Mystifying Blockchain – Today’s Conveyancer Podcast
The Today’s Conveyancer podcast returns with an episode dedicated to de-mystifying blockchain. In this episode we introduce Dan Salmons, CEO of Blockchain technology provider Coadjute. Dan sets out to de-mystify what blockchain technology is, and more importantly how it has the potential to make the “quantum leap” in the battle against seemingly ever increasing transaction […]
PII renewal remains challenging: Why? How can you mitigate against it?
By the time this article is published, we will have got through the key 1st October renewal date for SRA regulated Firms, following the immensely difficult CLC renewal earlier in the summer. Overall the Market for Legal Firms’ Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) remains very challenging, and indeed we have seen some Firms simply being unable […]
52% of new mortgages will end after borrowers turn 65
Findings from a new report commissioned by UK Finance reveal that 52% of new mortgage lending is going to borrowers who will not have paid off their home loan before their 65th birthday. Longer mortgage terms and an ageing population are helping to drive the trend towards later life borrowing, and is the first time […]
Average time to sell climbs to around 10 months
The average time it takes to sell a property has climbed to 320 days according to the latest data release from the estate agent comparison site, GetAgent.co.uk. GetAgent.co.uk keeps a comprehensive record of transaction times by monitoring the point at which a property is listed for sale to its entry as sold with the Land […]
Work to be done on supervision of AML regime
The Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS) has released its latest report on progress made in tackling money laundering by regulators over the past year. While this year’s report acknowledges that professional body supervisors (PBSs) within the accountancy and legal sectors have improved, it highlights differing levels of achievement and “significant weaknesses in […]
Are conveyancers losing money due to an outdated onboarding process?
Business leaders significantly underestimate how much inefficiency is costing them. It’s too easy to ignore the bigger picture and stick with an “it’s not perfect, but it works” attitude. But what if fixing that imperfect process unlocked 15% more capacity for you to take on extra clients without increasing your workforce? What would that look […]
Upto 400,00 transactions affected by lender down valuations
The impact of rising house prices has seen nearly 400,000 transactions down valued in the lat year by surveyors working on behalf of mortgage lenders, who believe the price agreed by both buyer and seller was too high. The latest analysis by London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, has identified that across the […]
Getting Lawyers Back To The Office… An Easy Matter?
The Government set out a step-by-step plan in February to ease restrictions in England during the Covid-19 pandemic. Step 4 of this roadmap plan began on 19th July, by highlighting the need to continue being cautious as we managed the ongoing risks of the virus. It was later stated on the Government’s website, updated on […]
How can conveyancers build resilience and avoid burn-out?
Although it seems that the level of transactions has calmed down somewhat post June 30 and the end of the first stamp duty holiday, it has not perhaps been the “cliff-edge” that some predicted. As we work towards the next of the SDLT deadlines at the end of September, house prices have only dipped very […]
Tools for measuring your marketing success
Content marketing is one of the most effective tools there is in communicating with your target audience. Content can be easily tailored and maintained to achieve the results you are looking for. Legal articles that serve as pieces of content to populate websites, blogs, social channels, e-newsletters and more continue to be a great source of information when communicating with prospects to inform and create awareness, […]
Levels of lending “unlikely to be sustained in the medium to long term”
UK Finance figures show the scale of the stimulus provided by the SDLT holiday as home movers sought to take advantage of the savings on offer but warned that the current levels of lending would not be sustainable in the medium to long term. The latest Household Finance Review which covers Q2 2021 points to […]
How TIM WOODS can improve productivity in your conveyancing firm
In the conveyancing world, fixed fees are paid for purchase transactions or completed sales, therefore time spent on activities that add no value to these transactions will eat into the profit a company earns. In the world of Lean, we call this non-value adding time “waste”, and Tim Woods is to blame. (Tim Woods isn’t […]
SDLT holiday may not be responsible for property market surge
Influential think tank the Resolution Foundation has suggested that the temporary stamp-duty was not the “overwhelming driver” behind the surge in property market activity and that underlying factors instead responsible for driving house prices up, indicating that the stamp-duty holiday may have been a waste of taxpayers money. Data from the Resolution Foundation’s quarterly Housing […]
Mortgage borrowing soars as half of remortgagers increase their loan
Homeowners across the UK are now borrowing more money from mortgage lenders than ever before according to new figures released this week. According to mortgage broker Mojo Mortgages, the average amount of money being applied for by existing homeowners has increased by just over £13,000 (up 25%) over the course of the pandemic – rising […]
