Property
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.
Land Registry misses targets on tackling errors and productivity
HM Land Registry has missed the targets it set itself for reducing errors in new entries on the register and on productivity, according to its annual report.
Regulator to review conveyancers’ referral arrangements
Last week’s BBC Panorama programme on ‘conditional selling’ by estate agents has prompted the Council for Licensed Conveyancers to launch a review of referral arrangements.
Law Commission reform to aid conveyancers with chancel repair
The Law Commission is planning to take one burden off conveyancers’ shoulders by removing doubts about chancel repair liability and the need to take out insurance.
CMA action “would put upfront information back on property agenda”
It may take strong enforcement action by the Competition and Markets Authority to make the property sector realise that upfront material information remains a priority.
Paralegal rebuked for £1.85m payment error
A senior paralegal has been rebuked for wrongly requesting the release of at least £1.85m to a property developer which later went bust, leaving his law firm to repay buyers.
Solicitor tried to stop counterpart reporting breach of undertaking
A solicitor who breached an undertaking and then tried to stop his opposite number reporting him to the Solicitors Regulation Authority has been struck off.
Conveyancers launch own guidance to reduce enquiries
A grassroots initiative to reduce the number of unnecessary enquiries which can delay conveyancing transactions has gone live.
Law Society “pauses” work on material information form
The Law Society has “paused” work on a material information form for conveyancers, after National Trading Standards withdrew it guidance on the issue last month.
Clients must understand conveyancers’ climate change role
Conveyancers must make it “very clear” to clients whether or not they are taking on liability in checking for climate change issues, a director at a leading indemnity insurer has warned.
Blog
The new metrics for success in conveyancing
While technology has made much of the conveyancing process faster, there remains a practical limit to how many matters anyone can manage while still keeping standards intact.
The UK legal market is polarising – and the middle is disappearing
Consolidation and the boutique boom are not contradictory. They are the same market stretching apart at both ends – and it changes what your firm is worth, and to whom.
Conveyancing’s consistency problem is about pressure, not skills
When I qualified, a conveyancer had perhaps 10 or 12 plates to keep spinning. Today’s conveyancers have 20 or 30, and almost none of the room for error I had starting out.
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