News

The CLC is recruiting

27 January, 2015

With a focused strategy that is delivering excellence in the regulation of property law, the CLC is an innovative player in the legal services market. A small and agile organisation that stakeholders say punches above its weight, we are now looking to recruit to a number of exciting new roles that have been created to [Read more]

Tips for complaints handling

12 January, 2015

TIPS FOR AVOIDING COMPLAINTS DO Maintain regular communication with other interested parties, such as the lawyer on the other side of the transaction, especially when a transaction is subject to delay which is beyond your control.  A formal complaint could be avoided simply by explaining why there is delay and the actions you are taking [Read more]

Conveyancing Focus Groups

8 January, 2015

BACKGROUND In December 2014 the CLC held separate focus groups of CLC conveyancers and users of conveyancing services. These were held in London and Manchester. The groups were small and not intended to be representative. The intention was to identify some points for further exploration in the areas of: The use and impact of client [Read more]

Publication of Disciplinary Information

6 January, 2015

Executive Summary Following consultation, the Council agreed, in its July 2014 meeting, to publish dates and locations of forthcoming Adjudication Panel misconduct hearings and formal determinations of conduct complaints heard by the Panel – please see the CLC’s Interim Response to the Consultation published last September for more information on this. In its October and [Read more]

Changes to CLC handook

5 January, 2015

Overview In December 2014, the CLC made 3 Exemption Direction applications to the Legal Services Board, related to a range of technical and minor drafting alterations to the CLC Handbook and associated documents: CLC Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorist Financing Code additions – safeguards duplicated from Mortgage Fraud Code Changes to timeframes of First Tier Tribunal [Read more]

Transition of the HMRC website to GOV.UK

22 December, 2014

Stamp Taxes and ATED guidance for our customers is moving from the HMRC website to GOV.UK on 18th Dec. This note explains why that’s happening and what it will mean for you. Moving our website – and why we are doing it Government is changing – to become ‘digital by default’. A big part of that [Read more]

Important changes to stamp duty land tax

3 December, 2014

The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement announced a major reform of SDLT for residential property transactions. With effect from 4 December 2014 the structure, rates and thresholds are being changed. The new rates, which apply where purchases are completed on or after 4 December 2014, are set out below.  Each new SDLT rate will only be payable [Read more]

Cost of Regulation

27 November, 2014

We want to hear from more CLC Lawyers about your views of the cost of regulation. It should only take 25 minutes to complete the Legal Services Board survey and you will be helping us to improve how we work. Find out more and have your say.

Individual and entity licence renewal 2014 – Deadline extension

31 October, 2014

Thank you to all those of you who have used the new online system to renew your licence already.  Your certificates will be coming to you by email over the course of the next week. In view of the difficulties that some people have experienced, we have extended the deadline of online renewal and payment [Read more]

Probate Apprenticeship Announced

23 October, 2014

A consortium of probate practices and experts, supported by the CLC, has been successful in its application to develop an apprenticeship in Probate as part of the Government’s Trailblazer 3 scheme. The consortium has the following members who between them bring a great breadth of experience and insight and who will also be consulting widely [Read more]

HSBC Panel Registration Now Open

9 October, 2014

We wrote to you on 23rd September with details of the agreement with HSBC that will enable all Licensed Conveyancer firms to act for HSBC as well as the home buyer. Read that message again. Registering as a user will enable CLC-regulated firms to receive conveyancing instructions and download relevant legal documentation to be able to [Read more]

Licensed Conveyancer – A diverse profession

30 September, 2014

Thank you to everyone who took part in the collection of data about the diversity of the CLC Regulated Community.  The response rate was excellent and has given us a very good understanding of the make-up of the profession. Read our analysis of the diversity of the profession or see the detailed, anonymised, statistics.   We want to [Read more]

HSBC Conveyancing Panel Update

23 September, 2014

The CLC and HSBC are now in the final stages of agreeing the processes that will ensure that the bank’s systems incorporate all CLC firms within its mortgage conveyancing arrangements. The new arrangements, agreed in July, will be introduced on 15th October 2014. Read this important information about what you need to do now. The [Read more]

Conveyancing Apprenticeship Success

20 August, 2014

The Government has today announced the success of the Trailblazer consortium of employers facilitated by the CLC Conveyancing Apprenticeships developed by the group create a new route to becoming a Licensed Conveyancer and establishes the role of Conveyancing Technician. Work is underway to ensure first apprenticeships can begin in the second quarter of 2015. The [Read more]

Bogus/’Clone’ Firms Warning

13 August, 2014

There have been a number of reports of bogus offices being set up as clones of legal practices in order to steal mortgage loans or advances or even client/account information. CLC firms need also to be aware that there is a risk that their own firm might be cloned, with their own letter-heading, website, email [Read more]

Access to the HSBC panel for Licensed Conveyancers

31 July, 2014

HSBC has agreed that, beginning this autumn, all Licensed Conveyancers will automatically be able to act for the Bank as long as they are currently licensed by the CLC. The only restriction is in respect of sole practitioners who are limited to cases where the mortgage does not exceed £150,000, in line with HSBC’s usual [Read more]

CLC webinar

31 July, 2014

We’d like to thank everyone who tuned in to our most recent webinar. If you were unable to join or would like to watch again, please click on the link to our podcast below. Click here. If you have any questions, please email our Chief Executive at ceo@clc-uk.org

CLC on firm footings

23 May, 2014

The CLC is today publishing its Financial Statements for 2013 here. They show that new Chief Executive Sheila Kumar, working with the Chair and Council, has put the specialist property law regulator onto a solid financial footing. There were unforeseeable additional burdens on the CLC in 2013 because of an increase in the number and scale [Read more]

Conveyancing Apprenticeship: round Two Consultation

23 May, 2014

The Consortium of employers that is developing the new conveyancing apprenticeship is seeking views on the latest draft of the apprenticeship standard and day one outcomes. This is further to a consultation at the end of April that provided useful feedback on the work that had been done up to that stage. Read the feedback [Read more]

Data about the CLC regulated community

23 May, 2014

CLC currently publishes core information about individuals and businesses regulated by us on our website under ‘Find a Licensed Conveyancer’. In common with other regulators in the legal sector and further to discussions led by the Legal Services Board and Legal Services Consumer Panel the Council for Licensed Conveyancers is now making available that information [Read more]

Regulatory Fees 2014/15: Have your say

21 May, 2014

Consumer Contracts Regulations

19 May, 2014

The Consumer Contract (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/3134) apply to contracts entered in or after 13 June 2014. •    They regulate most contracts made between a ‘trader’ and a ‘consumer’ •    Although there is some uncertainty as to the type of contracts to which they apply, you should assume that the [Read more]

CLC statement in Legal Ombudsman report “Complaints in Focus: Stamp Duty”

8 May, 2014

The Legal Ombudsman’s report published today 8th May 2014 Complaints in Focus: Stamp Duty throws further light onto an issue that the Council for Licensed Conveyancers has been raising for some months with HMRC, the Land Registry and our regulatory partners. Our expertise as specialist regulators of conveyancing and property law has given us insight [Read more]

CLC urges government not to give up on legal service modernisation

7 May, 2014

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers was disappointed with the Ministry of Justice’s announcement that it plans to do nothing more in relation to the review of regulation of legal services on 1 May 2014. We are surprised that a review under the Red Tape Challenge deregulatory agenda is not able to identify any measures that [Read more]

CLC consults on greater openness and transparency in regulation

25 April, 2014

Presumption in favour of publication of regulatory information Greater openness in the interests of the regulated community as well as consumers Licensed Conveyancers and stakeholders invited to comment on plans The Council for Licensed Conveyancers has today launched a six week consultation asking for views on its proposals for publishing data about the disciplinary history [Read more]