Property

A Surrey law firm has been ordered to pay more than £800,000 in damages for negligence after failing to tell its client that part of a property he thought he had bought had been retained by the seller.

The government has unveiled a £26m fund to support local authorities in migrating to the national local land charges register, with the aim of bringing all 336 on board by 2025.

A West Midlands law firm is being sued by a client who claims it failed to tell of a “ridiculous” ground rent that doubles every five years – meaning she will be paying £1m a year in 50 years.

Immigration and civil litigation were the two areas of legal practice hit hardest by the pandemic last year, with private client and family law “insulated” from the impact, new research has found.

A national panel of law firms is being created to allow estate agents and members of the public to find conveyancers prepared to provide buyers with upfront property transaction packs.

Convey Law has become the first law firm to join the government’s Document Checking Service pilot, meaning it can check information contained in UK passports against government records.

A solicitor jailed for more than three years for forging Land Registry documents in a family dispute with the owners of a Newcastle takeaway has been struck off.

Simplify, the private equity-owned group that leads the conveyancing market, is now one of the largest legal businesses in the country with a turnover of £139m last year, its accounts have shown.

A solicitor acted for both sides in a house sale at an undervalue between a 78-year-old woman and her 34-year-old boyfriend, which was set aside by the High Court on the grounds of undue influence.

National law firm Irwin Mitchell has been granted summary judgment in a professional negligence claim because the retainer prevented its former client assigning his cause of action.