Property
Head of property certified ID documents without seeing them
The head of commercial property at a law firm who certified a client’s ID documents as true and complete copies without seeing the originals has been struck off.
Tribunal fines solicitor for source of funds and lender failures
A solicitor has been fined £7,500 for failing to carry out source of funds checks and keep lenders properly updated about where purchase money was coming from.
Property Ombudsman fires warning over conditional selling
The Property Ombudsman has told home buyers to stand up for themselves in the face of estate agency pressure to use a preferred conveyancer or other service provider.
Paralegal banned for dishonest emails as supervisor cleared
A paralegal who lied to solicitors in one email and to a client’s relative in another has been banned – but the solicitor who supervised her exonerated.
Majority of conveyancers do not want binding sale contracts
Seven out of 10 conveyancing solicitors do not want the government to introduce mandatory binding contracts for offers to buy homes, research has found.
Exodus of conveyancers “will make transaction times even longer”
Transaction times will get “longer and longer” regardless of “how many new houses you build” because of the number of conveyancers leaving the market, MPs were told this week.
Call to tackle low-cost conveyancing as part of home-buying reform
Stronger regulation of the “high-volume, low-value conveyancing sector”, as well as a review of fee structures, is needed as part of home-buying reform, the government has been told.
Suspended suspension for “manifestly incompetent” solicitor
A “manifestly incompetent” solicitor who facilitated one fraudulent and three potentially fraudulent property transactions has been given a suspended suspension.
Fast-growing conveyancing firm bought by private equity
A conveyancing law firm only set up in May 2021 has been bought by private equity in a deal that values it at £25m.
Vos eyes machine-made decisions for property disputes
Many property disputes “could be amenable to machine-made decision-making” in the future, the Master of the Rolls has predicted.
Land Registry data puts spotlight on law firm errors
Most of the HM Land Registry customers will avoidable requisition rates of 20% or more are law firms, new figures have revealed.
Estate agency praised for dropping referral fee demands
An estate agency has been praised for publicly disavowing future demands for referral fees, describing them as “the quiet scandal” in the industry.
Digital property pack wins government data prize
A digital property pack which combines multiple sources of data into a “single source of truth” for conveyancers and others has won a government prize worth £50,000.
Conveyancers starting to cut down on ‘avoidable’ requisitions
Efforts to reduce the number of avoidable requisitions that the HM Land Registry has to make are working, new figures have shown.
CLC launches accelerated ‘experience’ route to qualification
The Council for Licensed Conveyancers has launched an accelerated route to qualification for fee-earners who have been working for at least four years in conveyancing or probate.
Blog
The ‘blank sheet’ challenge – what would you do differently?
The law is all about precedent and what came before. But imagine you had a blank sheet of paper and could start from scratch. What would you do differently? What would stay the same?
Why is Andrew Malkinson still paying for a crime he didn’t commit?
Like many in my profession and beyond, I have been moved by the case of Andrew Malkinson, the man who spent 17 years in prison for an awful crime he did not commit.
What is tech bloat and why is it a problem for law firms?
Too many law firms are adopting shiny new tech without first retiring their legacy systems, causing duplication and unnecessary costs.
