Property
Conveyancing fees maintain record high after stamp duty rush
Conveyancing fees have not fallen back after reaching an all-time high in the rush to get transactions completed before stamp duty increased on 31 March.
Conveyancers need reform of Building Safety Act “minefield”
Reform of building safety regulations may encourage professional indemnity insurers to remove their block on conveyancers advising on certain transactions, CILEX has told the government.
SDT rejects managing partner’s bid to blame junior solicitor for errors
A managing partner has failed to convince the SDT to blame the one-year qualified solicitor he was supervising for failures on a conveyancing transaction at an undervalue.
Land Registry needs to ditch “quasi-legal” culture, review finds
HM Land Registry needs to shift from a “quasi-legal” culture to one that is more consumer friendly given the changing nature of the home-buying process, according to a review.
Report backs “targeted approach” to upfront property information
A report for the Digital Property Market Steering Group has outlined a “more targeted approach” to upfront property information, focused on reducing late-stage transaction failures.
Suspension for solicitor who acted on both sides of transaction
A solicitor has been suspended over a “dereliction of duty” that saw him act on both sides of the transfer of an elderly and vulnerable client’s sole residence to a neighbour for nil consideration.
Third-party managed account first for licensed conveyancers
The Council for Licensed Conveyancers has issued its first approval for a law firm to use a third-party managed account for its client funds.
CLC issues warning not to slack off on post-completion work
The term ‘post-completion’ can encourage conveyancers to see applications to HM Land Registry as an afterthought, especially as they are done after collecting the fee, the CLC has warned.
High Court concerned by solicitors’ “fishy” role in possession case
The High Court has highlighted the “fishy” role of two solicitors in a housing possession case in what “looks like a stitch-up” of the occupant by her ex-husband.
Land Registry starts accepting qualified electronic signatures
HM Land Registry will now accept deeds signed with qualified electronic signatures and is encouraging lawyers and their clients to start using them.
Blog
From AI ambition to operational reality
AI is no longer an emerging technology on the horizon. It has become the connective tissue binding law, regulation, risk and commercial decision-making.
From text to world: The legal significance of multimodal AI
The next phase of AI, already underway, will integrate text with vision, sound, motion and even touch. This will produce systems that no longer ‘read about’ the world but perceive it.
The new leaders of law
Where once many law firm owners remained technology sceptics, a growing number are now shaped by leaders who are digitally fluent and commercially oriented.
