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News

Conveyancing fraud: BBC Morning Live

30 August, 2024

It’s not just the large sums of money that make property purchases attractive to criminals, the sense of urgency many feel as transactions come close to exchange and completion can also lead people to overlook small details that may indicate a fraudulent telephone call or email. BBC’s Morning Live programme recently covered the issue and [Read more]

Upcoming changes to the CLC’s Code of Conduct and secondary Codes 

14 August, 2024

The CLC’s application for approval of proposed changes to the Code of Conduct and 18 secondary, topic-specific Codes is currently under consideration by the LSB.  The extended decision period the LSB is working to will end on 17 September 2024 and we hope to receive approval by this date.    The application and draft, revised Code [Read more]

The New Economic Crime Regulatory Objective – an update 

14 August, 2024

On 26 June 2024, the Legal Services Board (‘LSB’) held a roundtable to discuss legal services regulation as it relates to the new economic crime Regulatory Objective and proposed new guidance on the implementation of Economic Crime Regulatory Objective which the LSB is proposing to publish.    The new Regulatory Objective, ‘promoting the prevention and detection [Read more]

More insurers enter the PII market for CLC regulated practices, who pay lower premiums

26 July, 2024

CLC hails successful PII renewal round as more insurers enter the market All of the CLC’s regulated firms, across both conveyancing and probate, have successfully secured professional indemnity insurance (PII) coverage for the year ahead. The announcement coincides with the release of new research from law firm Browne Jacobson and the International Underwriting Association, which [Read more]

Consultation on Licence And Practice Fee Arrangements

12 July, 2024

  Download the Consultation Paper   Find out more and respond online   The CLC’s Practice Fee contribution rates, together with the Individual Licence fees and other administration charges are reviewed annually to ensure that revenue collected through these charges is sufficient to cover the forecast expenditure for the next financial year. Each year in [Read more]

Update: Countries requiring Enhanced Due Diligence

5 July, 2024

The international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has made some changes to the countries which are on the “grey list” (those subject to increased monitoring) Bear in mind that the UK list of high risk jurisdictions now mirrors the FATF lists so CLC practices will now need to ensure that Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) is [Read more]

Risk Agenda 2024 Published

4 July, 2024

The annual publication brings together a list of the biggest risks faced by the CLC’s regulated community, which emerge during the regulator’s monitoring and inspection work throughout the year, along with advice to help practices stay on the right side of compliance. Areas covered in the 2024 edition include anti-money laundering, sanctions, conflicts of interest, [Read more]

New Compliance Notice: Source of Funds and Source of Wealth

12 June, 2024

Given the nature and focus of the services which CLC practices offer and their risk profiles, as well as events such as the war in Ukraine which has highlighted the flow of suspicious money from high-risk jurisdictions into the UK property market, there is a heightened scrutiny in relation to the measures CLC practices implement [Read more]

Complaints Survey of All CLC-Regulated Practices

7 June, 2024

We are writing today to the designated complaints contact in each CLC-regulated firm asking them to provide information about complaints handling in their firms. Below you will find the text of the full survey so that you can gather the information that you need before you begin completing the questionnaire online.   CLC Complaints Handling [Read more]

Charities Selling, Leasing or Disposing of Property: Implementation of the Charities Act 2022

23 April, 2024

This article highlights important legislative changes that CLC practices working with charity clients need to be aware of.  On 7 March 2024, a tranche of new Regulations were brought into effect by The Charities Act 2022 (Commencement No. 3, Consequential, Saving and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2024 (legislation.gov.uk). Among other changes, these Regulations bring into effect [Read more]

Breaches of Undertaking: New Advisory Note

23 April, 2024

The CLC has issued a new Advisory Note on Breaches of Undertakings in response to increased referrals of breaches. Find out more

Intervention into Spencer Lockwood Conveyancing Ltd

17 April, 2024

Find out more

Intervention into Rosemary Handley

11 April, 2024

11th April 2024. Find out more

Have your say on digitisation of the property market

13 March, 2024

To help us understand how we can improve the uptake of digital processes and ensure that we get the benefit of upfront information, the Digital Property Market Steering Group needs your views on the creation of a Digital Property Information Protocol. Respond to the short survey now    The Protocol, which you can see in [Read more]

HM Land Registry Consultation on Fees and Data Use

13 March, 2024

The CLC urges conveyancers and anyone else using HM Land Registry to respond to this new consultation on the organisation’s future fees and charging structure. You can find more information on gov.uk and responses can be submitted here. The consultation seeks views on supporting the land and property information agenda and encouraging innovation through better [Read more]

VAT Handling of Disbursements for Search Fees

12 March, 2024

Do you charge VAT on disbursements for search fees, for example when invoicing clients for the cost of Land Registry or local authority searches that you have undertaken in relation to their matters?   We know that historically, many firms did not charge VAT in respect of payments made for electronic property searches, Land Registry searches [Read more]

Call for Evidence on Supervision of Notaries

10 March, 2024

The Faculty Office, which regulates notaries, has published a paper: Find out more and share your views

Housing Minister urges “greater pace” of innovation to transform home buying and selling

5 February, 2024

Housing Minister urges “greater pace” of innovation to transform home buying and selling Conveyancers have “a central role” in realising a digital home buying and selling process but innovation needs to happen at a greater pace, the Housing Minister told last week’s Council for Licensed Conveyancers’ (CLC) annual conference. Baroness Penn said that “placing digitalisation [Read more]

Annual Report on 2023

2 February, 2024

The CLC has published its Annual Report on 2023, which demonstrates that the CLC’s approach to regulation: Find out more

Conference: The future of specialist conveyancing and probate

11 January, 2024

Join us in person on the morning of 1st February from 0930-1230 in Central London for insight and information from the CLC and a group of industry experts. We will hear from Baroness Penn, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the government’s priorities for transforming home buying [Read more]

Cyber disruption to legal services – keeping all parties informed

27 November, 2023

The conveyancing sector is currently experiencing some disruption to transactions arising from a cyber incident affecting a supplier to legal services providers. As well as keeping their own clients informed of any disruption to their matter in relation to such incidents, we expect any directly affected CLC-regulated practices to ensure that they have alerted lawyers [Read more]

Cyber incident affecting property transactions

24 November, 2023

We have been made aware that a cyber incident is affecting some conveyancing firms today and preventing some transactions from completing. The exact details are, as yet, unknown, but we advise all firms to check carefully if they have any reason to believe that client data has been compromised. For consumers expecting to complete a [Read more]

ReviewSolicitors

10 November, 2023

ReviewSolicitors is an established comparison website in the legal sector. Along with others, it has access to the data about CLC-regulated entities, published by the CLC for use by comparison websites. That is basic data about practices’ locations and contact details. A number of CLC-regulated practices have contacted the CLC following approaches from ReviewSolicitors. Those [Read more]

Simply Conveyancing Property Lawyers (East) Limited

6 November, 2023

Simply Conveyancing Property Lawyers (East) Limited (SCPLE) was acquired by Simply Conveyancing in late 2021. SCPLE will cease trading on 30 November 2023. Clients with transactions due in the days prior to the closure (including Friday 24th November) will not be impacted, and the completions will be undertaken by SCPLE as expected. All clients with [Read more]

New Consultation: Code of Conduct

26 October, 2023

The CLC has launched a consultation on a proposed new Code of Conduct following last year’s consultation Ethical Principles. Read the consultation document and respond.

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