Property
Assistant solicitor fined for costly undertaking failures
An assistant solicitor whose failure to comply with an undertaking in a property transaction cost his firm’s insurer £440,000 has been fined £5,500.
Legal market’s strong growth in 2024 set to continue this year
The UK legal services market grew by 10% to £52bn last year and is heading towards a strong 2025 too, according to new research.
SDT: Solicitor gave undertaking even if he did not call it one
An assurance given by a solicitor in a conveyancing transaction was an undertaking, even if he did not use the word, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has ruled.
£86m of client money went through in-house solicitor’s personal account
An elderly in-house solicitor who handled reserved legal work without authorisation, and used his personal bank account to process £86m of client money, has agreed to leave the profession.
Law firm avoids tribunal referral over PEP due diligence failures
A law firm that failed to conduct proper anti-money laundering checks while acting for a politically exposed person has been fined £25,000.
Law Society research highlights its TA6 failures
The extent of the Law Society’s misjudgement in last year’s launch of the updated TA6 property information form has been laid out by research it commissioned.
Conveyancers warned over amending contracts ahead of SDLT deadline
Conveyancers have been warned over efforts to amend agreed conditions of sale to take into account the possibility of not completing before SDLT changes.
Court allows City giant to progress ex-client’s claim on assignment
A major City law firm can continue bringing a case it took on assignment from former clients which could mitigate a possible professional negligence claim.
AI will allow conveyancers “to resume role of trusted advisors”
Artificial intelligence will not mark the end of the traditional conveyancer and will instead put them back into their old trusted advisor role, a roundtable has heard.
High-profile conveyancer “transferring shares” post-disqualification
Lloyd Davies, the high-profile licensed conveyancer who has been permanently disqualified, is now in the process of transferring his shares in his firm, it has confirmed.
High-profile conveyancer disqualified for misleading 300 students
A high-profile licensed conveyancer has been thrown out of the profession for not telling 300 apprentices and students that his training academy had lost its official accreditation.
Land Registry system will reject applications with “simple” errors
HM Land Registry is to up efforts to reduce the number of requisitions it has to send to conveyancers by automatically checking for “simple errors” in applications.
Rescinding £32.5m house sale “will not change conveyancing”
The High Court has rejected the argument that its decision to order recission of a £32.5m house sale because of the presence of clothes moths will cause conveyancers problems.
Civil servant takes chair of Digital Property Market Steering Group
A senior civil servant has taken over as chair of the Digital Property Market Steering Group amid the positive response to the announcement of plans to digitise the home-buying process.
Government commits to digitising home-buying process
The government yesterday pledged to bring the home-buying process “into the digital age” by opening up property information so it can be shared between all those involved in a transaction.
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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.
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