The Conveyancing Association announced last Friday that it had signed up its 50th member since its re-launch in September 2010. This achievement gives the Conveyancing Association both a critical mass of members but also a reasonable amount of funding to pursue its goals.
The 50th firm signed up is Mayo Wynne Baxter, a three office firm in Sussex which also specialises in French residential property law.
Recent member meetings have attracted some of the large mortgage banks including Santander and Lloyds Banking Group to speak about lender panel management issues. The growing membership base gives the Association a growing influence in the sector and illustrates the increasing demand among conveyancers for a strong collective voice at a time of great uncertainty for the industry.
The CA claims its members now carry out over two thirds (67%) of all UK mortgaging work and 15% of all UK property transactions. The Association is now represented on industry groups including the Mortgage Fraud Forum and Land Registry Advisory Panel, and is in close dialogue with lenders and other stakeholders in order to ensure members’ interests are represented in decisions that affect them.
Quite a few of the members of the Association tell us that the CA delivers more value than some of the other representative bodies that would traditionally represent solicitors or licensed conveyancers. This raises the question as what other representative bodies are going to do to up their game and recognise the changes that are occurring in the conveyancing market.
Eddie Goldsmith, Chairman of CA, said:
“I take great pleasure in welcoming our fiftieth member to the CA. It is a significant milestone, which reflects both the great strides we have taken over the past 18 months and our continued strong momentum. As we’ve seen from the developments with HSBC, ABS and the rest of the fraud prevention agenda, the sands of the home-buying industry are constantly shifting, which underlines the need for a body speaking up for the serious conveyancer. I would like to thank all our members for their invaluable contribution and support and I look forward to the continued growth and development of the CA.”
Mike Bowen, Associate at Mayo Wynne Baxter, said:
“The fraud prevention agenda is having a huge impact on the work of conveyancers so we need to work together to find practical solutions while maintaining standards. Being part of the Conveyancing Association gives us the confidence that our interests are being represented with the people making decisions at a national level.”;
Much of the credit for the success of the Conveyancing Association must go to Eddie Goldsmith who has worked hard to represent and grow the Association despite also running his own busy practice.
