The SRA and PII – Consulting Adults?
Back in May this year, on the same day as one Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) consultation was concluded without action, another four consultations were announced. Whilst the withdrawn (for now) proposal to ban unrated insurers from the solicitor Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) market would undoubtedly have made life more difficult for some (if not, many) […]
QualitySolicitors to acquire stake in Move with Us
Palamon Capital Partners, the owner of QualitySolicitors, have attained a controlling stake in the company of probate specialists – Simplify legal. The Simplify Group is currently comprised of probate specialists Chorus Law and leaders in conveyancing, DC Law and Move with Us. DC Law having recently acquired the Barnetts business in Southport. With a turnover […]
SearchFlow announces strong line-up for 2014 Property Forum Dinner
SearchFlow has announced that this year’s Property Forum Dinner will include a Question Time-style panel debate with industry luminaries. Panellists include Paul Smee, Director General of the Council of Mortgage Lenders; Viv Williams, Chairman of Ochresoft; Miles Shipside, Commercial Director of Rightmove; and Mike Ockenden, Chief Executive of the Council of Property Search Organisations. […]
eConveyancer lists on the stock exchange
United Legal Services also known as eConveyancer, listed on to the stock exchange on Monday. ULS, established in 2003, launched the eConveyancer platform in 2004 to provide a web based comparison service for its customers purchasing conveyancing. Over the years, the company has formed relationships with nationwide intermediaries including Lloyds — which is estimated to […]
Scam alerts at record high mid-year.
A couple of years ago it is fair to say that as an industry we were not exactly quaking with fear at the prospect of identity theft. Yes, we were all aware of it as a notion; certainly we may well have all been vigilant for quite some years in respect of personal identity theft. […]
Lexsure Risk Management Products Cited by PII Industry as Renewal Season begins
Risk management products developed by legal software house Lexsure are figuring in on numerous professional indemnity renewal forms for 2014/2015, according to the technology company. With a number of insurers and their preferred brokers, the risk management systems are actively promoted and incented. "One ‘A’ rated insurer has gone as far as offering a financial […]
New bill to end landowners' funding church repairs
A new Private Members’ Bill to ‘end the liability of lay rectors for the repair of chancels’ has been introduced into Parliament. Liberal Democrat Peer Lord Avebury put the new legislation forward on July 16 to stop landowners having to fund repairs for their parish church. In an article by the Law Gazette, Lord Avebury […]
New consultation on stamp duty and land tax
The government is holding a consultation to discuss making changes to the stamp duty and land tax rules. The consultation seeks views on changing certain collective investment schemes: the seeding of property authorised investment funds; and the wider SDLT treatment of co-ownership authorised contractual schemes. The consultation will seek to better understand the property funds […]
Interview with Tim Higham of Trethowans
Tim Higham is a Partner at Trethowans, specialising in all aspects of residential conveyancing. He tells Today’s Conveyancer how he always pushes for quality in the industry — and wishes other firms would do the same. Do you believe there is a quality issue in conveyancing at the moment, Tim? ‘I’m always one for pushing […]
New scam hits conveyancers
Conveyancers are being warned about a new scam that intercepts emails and uses the information in them to steal money. The scam, reported to have hit firms in South Africa, works by sending an email to a conveyancer and asking for monies owed to them, such as a refunded deposit, to be put into a […]
2014 sees largest remortgage loan ever recorded
This year has seen the largest amount ever recorded for an average remortgage loan, with the figure standing at £163,161, according to new figures. Rising house prices have pushed remortgaging loans up and the increases is nine per cent higher than in June last year, and five per cent up from May. Rising property values […]
ETSOS on the case with integration: Cognito FiLOS
Conveyancing technology specialist ETSOS is set to collaborate more closely with case management suppliers in a bid to increase system integration within conveyancing departments. A survey conducted by ETSOS revealed that only 27% of respondents using a case management system (CMS) had their search provider(s) integrated within that system. But with 94% of those reporting […]
Be More Uruguay? No! Be More Germany!
Back from an extended holiday and I am still smarting from the World Cup – even though it ended nearly three weeks ago. I think it was receiving sympathy from my German neighbour the morning after the Uruguay game that was so hard to take. My inferiority by nationality was palpable and reflected in his […]
It’s a big deal for Ochresoft
Legal workflow specialist, Ochresoft, has announced details of the largest contract to date for its Intelliworks conveyancing software. Leading Cornish law firm Coodes has rolled out the solution to over forty staff across its seven offices, with the project completing in less than three months. It comprised Cloud-based content-enabled workflows and Quotes module, with the […]
Landmark Legal podcast
In their latest podcast Landmark Legal discuss how Johnny Dawes, when rock climbing, precisely assesses very high risk and how lessons learnt can be applied when considering environment risk. Listen to the podcast now
Planning – positive or negative?
Planning can sometimes seem to be a subjective topic, but changes to your local environment could positively or negatively impact your quality of life and value of your property. The planning system in this country is in a constant state of flux and the current government introduced the Localism Act in November 2011 with the […]
OneSearch Direct and CompletionMonitor announce free webinar to minimise risk and save on PI Insurance
OneSearch Direct, one of the UK’s leading property search firms, has been selected to participate in a groundbreaking program to reduce conveyance risk. Don Belcher, national manager at OneSearch, said today they would recommend the use of Lexsure Ltd.’s COMPLETIONmonitor software, free of charge, to law firms conducting property searches with OneSearch Direct. What is […]
New Environmental Reports Launched by Future Climate Info.
Future Climate Info Ltd launches a brand new and innovative suite of Environmental Reports. These new reports analyse data in the categories of Environmental (including Contaminated Land), Flood, Ground Stability and Energy & Infrastructure and are divided into three products; Essential, Standard and Premium. The products analyse a combination of data categories and includes standardised […]
Staff from around the country celebrate STL’s 40th Anniversary
Around 100 members of staff recently enjoyed a magical evening of fairground fun to celebrate STL’s 40th Anniversary. Search clerks from around the country and staff from STL’s Woking HQ and Burton upon Trent office joined the Directors at a daytime conference to review and celebrate an extremely successful year and focus their thoughts on […]
Can ETSOS reduce your PII?
With PII renewal season in full swing have you ever considered how your choice of search provider could ultimately affect your premium? ETSOS provides a number of tools to enable conveyancers to actively demonstrate compliance and risk management; all on one easy to use platform. Our system will help you: Identify potential […]
