Following the news that the Competition and Markets Authority has investigated seven major housing developers in relation to the exchange of information regarding their properties, members of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers are urging the authority to turn its attention to prioritising upfront material information (MI).
The call comes after the CLC’s annual industry roundtable event, during which members shared their frustrations at the tone of public discussions surrounding the topic. Beth Rudolf, director of delivery at the Conveyancing Association and co-chair of the Home Buying and Selling Council, said media coverage incorrectly implied that MI was being ‘ditched’ – leading to conveyancers becoming complacent.
‘In fact, the underlying requirements on agents have not changed’, she noted. ‘But they need interpreting now without the specific property related guidance’.
The challenge, the CLC believes, is a lack of visible enforcement of the rules laid out in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act – which is where the CMA could step in. What was needed, the roundtable participants agreed, was ‘a couple of hefty fines from the CMA to focus minds’.
‘The CMA has far greater enforcement powers than National Trading Standards’, Rudolph pointed out.
“The moment we see the big fines coming down, the agents are on board. I’m confident the CMA will start by asking for undertakings from agents to comply and, if they do not comply, then they will be fined. That’s what they did with the new-build developers and the mis-selling of leasehold properties.”
Another proposal put forward during the event was for the Law Society to include guidance in the national conveyancing protocol. ‘While this cannot influence estate agent behaviour, it heavily influences conveyancers’, the CLC noted.
In the absence of CMA enforcement, the CLC hopes to see a collective industry effort to produce an update on the guidance – something which Stephen Ward, CLC’s director of strategy and external relations said ‘is already there for the taking’ in the form of the Digital Property Market Steering Group.
He added:
“But we need some real unity there so that all of the organisations involved and driving this transformation are truly working in concert. We need a coordinated campaign to ensure that the people who are delivering this on the ground, whether it is the estate agents, the conveyancers, the mortgage brokers, or the staff at the lenders, understand the benefits of this change for them and their clients and are confident about what they can do.”
Epi Pearce, risk manager (property risk) at Nationwide Building Society, highlighted an example from Nationwide and Rightmove, who recently launched a property lending check to offer potential buyers real-time information about the likelihood of getting a mortgage on the home they want to view. She noted:
“That is the biggest step forward that we have had in a while.”
Further information about the discussions held during the roundtable can be seen on the CLC website at https://www.clc-uk.org/conveyancing-roundtable-2025/
2 responses
Maybe the CLC should be more concerned in the issues caused to the Conveyancing progress by some of their firms with low standards of knowledge and professionalism, some of whom do not even employ conveyancers based in this country.
Clamp down on some of the firms we all love to hate (without worrying about the practice fees they pay you), and conveyancing standards might to improve across the board so benefitting clients which is what we all want isn’t it? A couple of hefty fines will surely help there?
It’s all smoke and mirrors
The real issue is that the factory firms are inefficient and they have slowed the transaction timeframes through a business model which does not deliver for their own clients and adversely effects other consumers
MI line the regulation of estate agents requires legislation
There’s no appetite for it
The Conveyancing Association is there to protect factory firms. That’s why there’s not much enthusiasm from it for banning referral fees because without them many of their members wouldn’t get clients referred to them if good service and efficiency was the standard for a referral
The CLC needs to start acting like a Regulator instead of a fig leaf