We all know of the horror stories of premium rises for solicitors who conduct conveyancing and that if you can’t buy insurance on the open market the assigned risk pool will at a price enable

Quality Solicitors (QS) and W H Smith have signed a deal that will see QS members of staff placed in 150 high street stores, eventually rolling out to 500, at what will be known as

Monday saw the announcement that Countrywide have acquired Bournemouth based Mortgage Intelligence, one of the largest mortgage distribution networks, for an undisclosed sum.  Countrywide owns CPL one of the largest conveyancers in the country and

From 7th March this year Homes Solicitors LLP closed their doors, citing the excessive costs of Professional Indemnity Insurance premiums as the reason for closure. Homes Solicitors said that ‘despite not having a claim against

The Law Society have now reported that over 700 firms have now applied to join the Conveyancing Quality Scheme and have said that it is still possible for conveyancing firms to apply.  At the end

We’ve probably all done it… sighed at the prospect of dealing with a Leasehold transaction.  If you are not keen on Leasehold transactions do you think you have become complacent when you do have to

The following was originally published in the Law Society Gazette on Thursday 24 March 2011 by Jonathan Smithers and was also online at www.lawgazette.co.uk.  The Law Society and Jonathan have kindly allowed us to reproduce

There are a lot of different opinions regarding the Law Society’s CQS Scheme, some ‘for’ and some ‘against’. Paul Murden a locum from the South East regularly writes a blog about conveyancing and we thought

Today’s Conveyancer were recently able to ask Lisa Draper, Partner at Attwells Solicitors LLP, a few questions about the challenges currently facing the profession. Attwells, a three Partner practice with offices in Ipswich, Suffolk and

One of the UK’s biggest volume conveyancing solicitors, Goldsmith Williams, is offering a free ‘housewarming gift’ to their first time buyers.  Following the recent budget announcement it is thought that this will encourage first time

A roundtable event hosted by former Head of the Office of Fair Trading and President of the E-Homebuying Forum, Sir Bryan Carsberg, last week saw leading estate agents, solicitors and conveyancers debating on the introduction

There are plenty of home owners who are unaware that they are responsible for the maintenance and repair of the pipes that connect their external drain to the public sewer but all the current home

The National house builders, Bellway Plc, have released their interim results for their half year ended 31stJanuary 2011 indicating that they completed almost 4% more homes, despite the current low market conditions. The key points

The Legal Ombudsman yesterday published anonymous case studies on their website stating that it is part of their commitment to helping both consumers and solicitors to understand the sort of issues that it is required

The latest Bank of England Statistics for February show a slight increase in the number of loans approved for house purchase, 46,967.  The figures are slightly higher than the previous six month average of 46,413. 

With the advent of ‘the internet age’ and other technology the conveyancing process has been revolutionised but David Kempster, Sales and Marketing Director at SearchFlow, says “these high-tech solutions should not come at the expense

According to the Telegraph, buy to let opportunities have been opened up by the Budget’s stamp duty reforms following the announcement that there are to be tax cuts on the bulk purchase of residential properties.

Many home owners who are currently on a variable rate mortgage have made a dash for low cost fixed rate mortgage deals before the Bank of England has another opportunity to increase interest rates.  Around

The Law Society’s updated Code for Completion by Post will come into force on 1st April 2011 and is available on their website now. The updated Code will only apply to transactions where you have

If you’re looking for a new role take a look at our jobs section.  We have recently added a new role for a Remortgage Fee Earner based in Cheshire, through Ab Initio Recruitment.  Have a

First time buyers are being offered a lifeline when it comes to getting on the property ladder but how will George Osborne’s First Buy scheme work?  First time buyers earning £66k or less will be

Residential property lawyer David Morgan, a Partner at Higgs & Sons, has said that owners of property with a septic tank must be made aware of the new regulations relating to domestic septic tanks.  The

Aldermore, who say that their aim is to ‘take a fresh perspective on markets that have been poorly served by traditional banks’, have recently launched a number of fixed and variable rate remortgage deals.  The

The Solicitors Regulation Authority are seeking your views regarding the fee structure for alternative business structures (ABS). They say that the starting point for the development of the fee structure for ABS is: that the

According to the latest Buy to Let Index from LSL Property Services Plc rents have risen, in February, by 0.2 per cent to £684, an annual rise of 3.9 per cent.  Tenant arrears, however, have

Zolfo Cooper Partners, Simon Appell, Alastair Beveridge and Anne O’Keefe, were appointed Joint Administrators of Peverel Ltd, Peverel Group Ltd, Aztec Opco Developments Ltd and Aztec Acquisitions Ltd on 14th March.  The four are holding

HM Revenue & Customs have made a further announcement regarding submissions of form SDLT1, including the supplementary forms SDLT3 and SDLT4, online screens will also be changing.  Previously the National Insurance number was not a

Legal & General’s recently released Moving Intentions Survey results indicate that only 30 per cent of the adults who took part in the survey believe that they will be buying a property in the next

The Land Registry have reported that results for Official Searches issued on 17th March 2011 are incorrectly stating that the priority period expires on 29th April, unless you have been living in a bubble this

The Telegraph recently reported that a controversial new mortgage deal is being launched by five local authorities and is being backed by Lloyds Banking Group.  The scheme is reportedly being aimed at first time buyers

According to the SRA website cloning criminals are making minor changes to solicitors’ websites enabling the internet fraudsters to trick clients into entering a bogus site.  They are then encouraged to hand over money on

The SRA’s Handbook, which recently received final approval, sets out new regulatory arrangements which support the introduction of outcome focused regulation, coming into force on 6th October 2011.  The board have said that they are