Property

Rethinking the home-buying process – including bringing an end to caveat emptor – and putting digital justice on a firm footing are among projects being considered by the Law Commission.

A solicitor who forged a qualified colleague’s signature on conveyancing documents while still a trainee has been struck off, with a tribunal rejecting her claim that she had been authorised to do it.

HM Land Registry published its first Digital Identity Standard last week, offering conveyancers a ‘safe harbour’ if they use it to verify their client’s identity digitally.

A former solicitor who had access to the files of matters he had referred to his conveyancing manager wife has been given the lowest-level sanction by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal

Conveyancers are facing more cliff edges and greater pressures on their practices following Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s decision to extend the stamp duty holiday.

Conveyancers have urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak not to extend the stamp duty holiday and instead focus on allowing those who have instructed a lawyer by a certain date to complete.

A solicitor left clients “high and dry” by failing to register their property purchases and pay stamp duty, while misappropriating some £175,000 of their money, a tribunal has found.

The average conveyancing firm completed 21% fewer transactions last year, although the market did rebound strongly at the end of the year, with transaction volumes up 27% in just one month.

A veteran solicitor did not confirm that his imprisoned client had given instructions to transfer a £300,000 property to his mother, with the client claiming after it happened that he knew nothing about it.

A large number of conveyancers are focused on growing their businesses this year, even though some have struggled to cope with the workload of a hot property market, research has found.