Blog

Chair’s Report of the Council Meeting of 2nd February 2023

10 February, 2023

Chair’s Report from Dame Janet Paraskeva This was the Council’s first meeting of 2023 and there was a busy agenda. We had hoped to welcome members of the Legal Services Board for a face to face joint board session and hope that this can be rearranged soon. Competence Setting standards for entry to the profession [Read more]

Prevention V Enforcement

9 January, 2023

How much can legal regulation be about prevention rather than enforcement? Is the current model favoured by most of the regulators too focused on disciplining wrongdoing, rather than more active engagement to stop it in the first instance and promoting ongoing competence? Which approach do lawyers best engage with? The Council for Licensed Conveyancers recently [Read more]

Chairs report of November Council Meeting

15 November, 2022

Read the full report by Dame Janet Paraskeva

Your questions answered: Issues discussed in our Twitter Q&A

14 October, 2022

From stamp duty cuts to cyber-crime and the cutting-edge technology transforming the conveyancing sector, there was lots to discuss at the CLC’s first Twitter Q&A. Stephen Ward, our director of strategy and external relations, was in the hot seat as we tried to cover off the issues most important for conveyancers and consumers. For anyone [Read more]

Chair’s Report of the Council Meeting of 28th July

13 September, 2022

CLC Council Meeting 12th May 2022

17 May, 2022

Chair’s Report from Dame Janet Paraskeva This is my second written report on a CLC Council meeting. There was a very positive response to the first one, covering the Council meeting of 12th February 2022.  These reports aim to give those we regulate and other stakeholders a different insight into how we go about our [Read more]

CLC Council Meeting 10th February 2022

14 February, 2022

Chair’s Report from Dame Janet Paraskeva This is the first time I have written a report on a CLC Council meeting. I hope that it will give those we regulate and other stakeholders a different insight into how we go about our work. We have formal quarterly meetings to review performance and to consider policy [Read more]

The Role of the Regulator

25 January, 2022

This article first appeared in What Mortgage Magazine. Regulators are like football referees – it’s best when you don’t notice us. And we want the game, or rather the market, to flow with minimal intervention. But there come times when we have to act where clients face an immediate risk and that action has to [Read more]

‘Tech adoption would have taken years’ – CLC roundtable highlights how the pandemic forced conveyancing firms to put property tech at the top of their agenda

16 December, 2021

It was the diversity of the conveyancing market – ranging from volume providers to small law firms that acted on a handful of transactions – that meant it was able to handle the huge surge in work caused by the stamp duty holiday, a roundtable hosted by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) heard recently. [Read more]

Modular homes: coming to a town near you

16 October, 2021

One lasting legacy from the pandemic will be the switch to online purchasing. As a nation we have all become far more comfortable with making purchases online before we have seen the goods. Now imagine extending that online shopping habit to buying a home – where you choose the layout and the décor from the [Read more]

Join a Digital Identity Pilot

13 September, 2021

The home buying and selling process is based on a high level of trust between trusted third parties such as estate agents, conveyancers & lawyers, financial intermediaries and mortgage lenders. The core of the transaction centres on proof of identity and ownership and currently organisations will not trust identity verification carried out by another organisation. [Read more]

The 2021 PII Renewal Round

2 July, 2021

This has been an extraordinarily challenging professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewal period for CLC-regulated firms.  This is in the context of a hardened insurance market which is affecting the sector as a whole. Aside from the pressures imposed by Covid and Brexit, insurers continue to be under pressure to improve profitability. Insurers also have concerns [Read more]

Could vendor disclosure replace caveat emptor?

6 November, 2020

The rapid adoption of technology because of lockdown could move the conveyancing process from an emphasis on the buyer and caveat emptor to one of vendor disclosure, a Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) roundtable has heard. Vendor disclosure would put the onus on the seller to ensure that they have provided all the information required [Read more]

The scams property buyers, sellers and renters need to watch out for

23 September, 2020

Since the property market reopened in May following lockdown, conditions have been ideal for buying, selling or renting a home. But unfortunately it isn’t just buyers and sellers who have returned to the market – so have criminal scammers, seeking to take advantage of people transacting in the property market. With the stamp duty holiday ending [Read more]

Making progress on indicators of quality

17 July, 2020

Comments from Stephen Ward, Director of Strategy and External Affairs at the CLC It is now some eighteen months since we along with other frontline legal regulators introduced new transparency requirements on the legal service providers we regulate. The aim was to enable consumers to be able to make a more informed choice in choosing [Read more]

Getting the home buying and selling process moving again

15 July, 2020

Stephen Ward, director of strategy at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, looks at how the conveyancing market is dealing with a return to work after the coronavirus lockdown   We’re now in the early stages of getting the home buying and selling process moving again after lockdown. This follows the publication of the cross-industry guide, Re-Opening [Read more]

The 2020 PII renewal round: some initial comments

7 July, 2020

Comments from CLC Director of Regulatory Standards, Simon Blandy. At the beginning of the PII renewal round this year, I commented on the ongoing pressures on the commercial insurance sector. At the time I said that these pressures would impact on PII renewal for CLC practices and noted that insurers had warned that pre-existing conditions [Read more]

Facing up to the digital identity challenge

29 May, 2020

The prevention of property fraud obviously relies on the accurate verification of the parties to the transaction. Even in the best of circumstances, conveyancers checking the identity of their clients personally can be inconvenient to both. It also relies on the skill and attention to detail of person doing the checking, which can be variable. [Read more]

Preparing for the 2020/21 PII Renewal round

22 May, 2020

The 2020/21 PII renewal round, comments from CLC Director of Regulatory Standards, Simon Blandy.   All CLC Practices must renew their PII policies by 30 June 2020. Overview of the current Insurance Market Insurers in the commercial insurance sector have reported losses since 2017 (see review).  They are rethinking their strategy, with many cutting capacity [Read more]

Identifying obstacles to career progression

21 May, 2020

While the guidance has changed to allow property buying and selling to re-start it seems it will take some time for, whatever the new usual will be, to develop. However, it will do so, and we want to use this period now as best we can to make sure that when it does conveyancing and [Read more]

Kindness matters in the workplace

18 May, 2020

In Mental Health Awareness Week, we are pleased to be able to share this blog post from the legal sector charity LawCare   Kindness is the theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week (18-24 May). The recent coronavirus pandemic has shown us all how much kindness matters in a crisis – with people clapping [Read more]

Five top tips for choosing your conveyancer

12 May, 2020

For those who plan to buy or sell a property in the next year, there are some things you can do now to help your property transaction go more smoothly. If you really want to hit the ground running, having already appointed your conveyancer will mean you’ll be ready to go as soon as you’ve found the [Read more]

Watch out for fraud and scams

7 May, 2020

Fraud is everywhere and conveyancing scams can hit people really hard as large sums of money are involved in housing transactions. Stephen Ward, director of strategy at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, explains what to look out for and how to protect yourself We must always be on our guard for online fraud, especially when [Read more]

The changing shape of the conveyancing market

20 April, 2020

Note: This article was written before the Covid-19 lockdown Bill Gates once said “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten,” and that so often proves to be true. Now more than ever the pace of change is rapid, [Read more]

What information should Property Portals show about all property listings?

10 February, 2020

National Trading Standards Estate & Letting Agency Team are looking for input from Conveyancers as they consider a list of prescribed material information (under the CPRs) that should be included with all property listings in the UK. Please respond directly to them 14th February 2020. Basic non-optional material information – applicable to all properties marketed in the [Read more]