Property

The withdrawal of the material information guidance for estate agents was met last week with a mixture of confusion, alarm and celebration by lawyers.

A law firm that paid out £750,000 to a buyer client over an error on a property transaction has taken assignment of its claim against the seller.

A long-serving property solicitor who defrauded a Hereford law firm out of £160,000 by diverting disbursement payments into her own bank account has been jailed for 30 months.

A negligence claim against a well-known London law firm over erroneous information it gave to a client’s mortgage lender has been dismissed on the basis of causation.

A law firm owner has been suspended for not disclosing conflicts of interest to clients, including that his wife was a director of the property development company they were buying from.

The First-tier Tribunal has upheld an £8,400 fine imposed on a law firm for not belonging to a client money protection scheme while collecting rent for properties owned by clients.

A law firm that promises home movers “fast conveyancing” has told Legal Futures that it meets its targets for accelerated exchanges 80% of the time.

A solicitor who paid away proceeds of a property sale in breach of an undertaking and then loaned the client the money to make up the shortfall, has been fined for misconduct.

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.

The UK legal services market grew by 10% to £52bn last year and is heading towards a strong 2025 too, according to new research.

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.

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.

A law firm that failed to conduct proper anti-money laundering checks while acting for a politically exposed person has been fined £25,000.

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 have been warned over efforts to amend agreed conditions of sale to take into account the possibility of not completing before SDLT changes.