Thematic reviews of complaints handling and managing conflicts of interest

19 August, 2013

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers has today announced two thematic reviews to assess standards of practice in the management of conflicts of interest, for example when the regulated community is acting for both the buyer and the seller in a property transaction and in complaints handling.

The work will begin immediately and includes targeted surveys of selected regulated entities based on information they provided as part of their Annual Regulatory Return and information provided by the Legal Ombudsman. The findings will be brought to the Council for review and approval of any consequent actions by the end of the year.

Sheila Kumar, Chief Executive of the CLC said: “The CLC’s regulatory regime has secured extremely high levels of risk management and Licensed Conveyancers have an enviable reputation in the legal sector. Our regulatory arrangements for entities acting for both the buyer and the seller of a property have been in place for some time and are well proven. It is good regulatory practice to review such arrangements periodically as part of a rolling programme and in the light of market developments.

“Following work with the Legal Ombudsman we now have access to very rich data about the complaints that reach them from the clients of all those we regulate. Happily these are few in number but will nonetheless yield useful learning for all and we note that LeO has raised general issues across the legal sector relating to the signposting of LeO to consumers. We also want to take the opportunity of roadshows that we are holding in the last quarter of the year to discuss complaints handling issues with Licensed Conveyancers.”