AI Auctioneer Conducts World’s First House Sale
The property market took another step into modernity this week with the first property sale conducted by Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence auctioneering company clicktopurchase® simulates the traditional property auction but uses an online medium to facilitate the sale. It is thought the AI auctioneer, named gAbl, will eliminate the problematic element of a human error; […]
Proposals Could Help Generation Rent
Following the Conservative party conference, rumours have been circulating regarding the government’s plans to help ease the housing crisis. As the Autumn Budget approaches, fresh concerns of how the government could tackle the increasing reliance on private rental properties has emerged. The conservatively minded think tank, Onward, suggests that making rental properties exempt from Capital […]
Cheapest Homes Too Expensive For Most Young People
A new report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found that the majority of the cheapest homes are too expensive for 40% of young adults in the UK. Attributed to a meteoric rise in house prices and wages increasing lower than the rate of inflation over recent years, the gap between salary and […]
Legal Services Consumer Panel Castigate ICAEW’s Voluntary Compliance Decision
Following The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) announcement that they will not enforce price transparency rules onto its firms that provide probate services, The Legal Services Consumer Panel have released a statement castigating the decision. Instead, the ICAEW have said that price transparency will remain voluntary to its 280 regulated probate […]
Right To Manage Companies And Consents
RIGHT TO MANAGE COMPANIES AND CONSENTS REINER V TRIPLARK LTD [2018] EWCA Civ 2151 A recent Court of Appeal case reminds us that when buying a flat where a Right to Manage (RTM) company is in place, the procedure to be followed may well be different from that normally expected. RTM companies are usually set […]
SRA and CLC to speak at Legal Eye conference
Legal Eye’s conference in Birmingham next month will feature presentations from both the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC). Risk and compliance advisers Legal Eye have put together a packed programme of talks, panel discussions and breakout sessions to help risk and compliance professionals, COLPs, COFAs, senior and managing partners, […]
SRA Release Waiver Register Information
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) have released its register of waivers which allows certain exemptions for specific rules that do not apply to individual firms. The ‘safe space’ and register of waivers system was launched in the hope of reducing the restrictions on business, thus enabling many firms to operate with more freedom that will […]
HMLR Expand Digitisation And Blockchain Property Sales Enter Europe
The HM Land Registry (HMLR) have continued their relentless task of transferring all local authority data onto a digital system. The City of London Corporation is now live, and all property requests will go through HMLR as opposed to the local authority from now on. This is now the third local authority to have successfully […]
Latest Index Indicates Stable Housing Market
The housing index, measured by the Halifax, has found that prices are 2.5% higher than a year earlier, a 1.8% increase in the third quarter compared to quarter two results. Despite the average house price now standing at £225,995 because of the 1.4% decrease in house prices caused by poor August and September sales, experts […]
Government Insist On Estate Agent Referral Fee Transparency
New research from the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), carried out by YouGov, has found that 59% of the 500 respondents who accepted estate agent advice and used a recommended conveyancer were unaware that a referral fee was paid to the estate agency. It was this lack of communication that Heather Wheeler, MP, believes should […]
Pali’s Mel Hogan set to volunteer on charity Ghana trip!
Next May, our newest Palian Mel is heading to Ghana in West Africa, where she will be volunteering in a children’s day care centre. Here is Mel’s message to help raise donations for her trip. “When I am in Ghana I will be helping out amongst the centre’s local staff. As they always have their […]
Unexplained Wealth Order Issued
The wife of a millionaire bank owner, jailed for fraud, has been subject to the first Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) in the UK. UWOs were introduced to UK law in 2017 following increasing anxieties that the UK housing market is being exploited to facilitate money-laundering on an unprecedented scale. In fact, the National Crime Agency […]
Home-buyers “in the dark” over fees lawyers pay for their work
Most home-buyers do not know if their conveyancer paid a fee for a recommendation from their estate agent, according to new research from specialist property lawyer regulator, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC). A YouGov survey of almost 500 consumers in England and Wales who have bought a property in the last 10 years, reported […]
London’s Commercial Property Transactions More Than Double In Three Years
The number of commercial transactions has grown by 114% from 7,445 in 2014 to 15,939 in 2017, with 2018 set to be another bumper year Commercial transactions now account for almost one in four (23%) property transactions in London in 2018, up from one in ten in 2014 The value of London’s annual commercial transactions […]
Government Invest £10m in AI Development
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s regulators pioneer fund have released £10 million to fifteen regulators tasked with realising the vision of solidifying the UK as a world leader in regulatory innovation within the legal sector. Included within the fifteen regulators, the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) have been given £700,000 that will make […]
Landmark Hosts Emerging Technologies Hackathon To Inspire AI And Machine Learning Innovation
Landmark Information Group, the property, land and environmental data specialist, is hosting its second Emerging Technologies Hackathon of 2018 at multiple locations around the UK this week. With three primary offices connected and collaborating via Surface Hubs, over 50 software engineers, data experts and product specialists are collaborating on a number of projects that will […]
Thirdfort Fight Conveyancing Fraud – Funding Announcement
Thirdfort is delighted to announce a £400,000 pre-seed funding round led by Alex Chesterman (founder of Zoopla) and Lawyer Checker (leading legal anti-fraud specialist). The funding will be used principally to grow the team to develop the platform ahead of product roll-out. Other investors in this funding round include a range of successful entrepreneurs and […]
CLC Responds To Regulatory Movement
Following the news that three firms have taken advantage of the Solicitor Regulation Authority’s (SRA) removal of the six month run-off indemnity insurance for firms leaving the regulator by joining the CLC, it has emerged that more firms are also doing the same. The CLC have announced that at least three more firms have made […]
National Roadshow To Prepare Your Firm For 2019 And Beyond
Lawyer Checker have collaborated with Bold Legal Group, InfoTrack, LEAP, Perfect Portal and Riliance to present a series of complimentary seminars, highlighting key issues including GDPR, fraud, risk management, price transparency, best practice, improving the home buying and selling process and many more. Delegates are free to attend this event where you can hear talks […]
Forfeiture Of Leases – What Do We Tell Clients?
Well, there’s a coincidence! I had started writing an article with the above title before I saw the newspapers this weekend. So now we have the horror story of Mr McCadden who had lost his leasehold flat worth £600,000 due to the lease being forfeited as he had redecorated his flat! Of course, the facts are slightly more complicated […]
