About CQS Conveyancing

The Bank of England's governor has recently warned the cabinet that a chaotic no-deal Brexit could crash house prices. His worst-case scenario was that house prices could fall as much as 35% over three years. If such a prediction comes to pass it will be destructive for conveyancing firms. Lenders will not swallow their losses happily. For conveyancers, that means a tsunami of file reviews because lawyers are an easy target for a lender looking to offset a loss – or pass it on altogether. Any failure by the lawyer to comply with the letter of their mortgage instructions – typically based on the lenders’ handbook – will be pounced upon. Many firms will be removed from lender panels or fail to find a PI insurer, which amounts to the same thing. There will be fewer conveyancing law firms. Strong risk assurance embedded in your firm’s everyday practice can put those worries to rest. Ask yourself whether you have ever considered a pre-lender compliance audit. Many firms m...

In the lead-up to PI insurance renewals, Lexsure are offering firms the ability to commission a lender compliance audit which can be used to evidence to professional indemnity insurers the quality of their conveyancing. The independent assessment reviews files based on the UKF Handbook Requirements as of the date of the mortgage offer on file. Until now, Lexsure restricted the availability of their audit facility to a policy of dealing with lenders and insurers but are now making the facility available directly to firms. Everyone knows that conveyancing is the highest-risk area of legal practice with lenders dominating the instigation of claims. Firms that are confident of their quality and compliance with lender requirements should be able to evidence to their PI insurers that they are managing risk properly. In carrying out an audit, the assessor (non-practicing solicitors with over 20 years conveyancing experience) utilise Lexsure’s proprietary technologies which incorpo...

The Pepsi Challenge signaled a major shift in the cola landscape. In 1975, Coke dominated the cola market having held the number 1 position for decades.  Pepsi was the underdog looking to prove something. They were hungry and willing to mix it up. Pepsi came up with a bold revolutionary strategy to do just that. That idea was the Pepsi Challenge. Pepsi went inside malls around the USA and invited people to do a blind taste test between Coke and Pepsi. The challenge was designed to be a direct response to critics who allege that Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola are identical drinks, with no meaningful differences. The results were remarkable; people picked Pepsi over Coke by a significant margin. Leading law tech company Lexsure are offering up to 50 firms to conduct, free of charge, their own version of the Pepsi challenge. Will Lexsure’s ENQUIRYgenerator technology outperform a firm’s conventional method of raising additional enquiries? There are the two options as to how the cha...

The three month period between June and September 2018 witnessed significant activity when it came to lenders changing their Handbook instructions. Conveyancers may have taken a well earned break during the summer but lenders did not rest when it came to altering their requirements for panel firms. Here are some of the facts and figures: Lender Sections Changed Separate Change Events Barclays Bank UK PLC 3 2 Halifax 8 4 HSBC Bank plc 11 5 Nationwide Building Society 9 6 Santander UK plc 12 5 Skipton Building Society 4 3 Virgin Money plc 1 1 A full list can be found here : The total number of sections varied in the summer period was 253 with 47 lenders making changes. Email notifications via the LENDERmonitor Notification Service was sent to over 650 lawyers. The highest open rates were by top-200 law firms who, in this regard, display a healthy appetite towards lender compliance. 60% of LM04 pre-COT date range sea...

Receiving a letter from a lender requesting a number of your firm's conveyancing files is like playing out the "Do You Feel Lucky" scene from the movie Dirty Harry.  One day things feel great in the conveyancing department and the next day the pesky lender - a ‘so called’ client - is on your case. Problem is that the conveyancing department or indeed the whole firm can be shot to pieces by that darned list-wielding and trigger-happy client.  Maverick cops aside, compliance with lender handbook requirements is more critical than ever, especially given the likely increase in interest rates and repossessions. There are two types of firm:  Organizations with a culture of strict lender compliance management who have internal audit mechanisms in place.  The casual firms who have some idea about dealing with lender compliance  don't do internal audits. Such firms operate on a hope and a prayer that the property prices continue to rise and that their borrower c...

I’m a specialist in risk, so I can sometimes be accused of being a little conservative in outlook, even for a lawyer. But I suspect that this blog post will have some lawyers reaching for their thesaurus to find stronger words, like “worrier”, “pessimist” or even “doom-monger”. I’m sticking my neck out today to predict that within the next couple years there will be a dramatic increase in lender file audits. Reaching for my own thesaurus, I’ll go for a “tsunami”. It will be destructive. Many firms will be removed from lender panels or fail to find a PI insurer, which amounts to the same thing. Once the waters recede, there will be fewer conveyancing law firms. As with the mythical Cassandra of Troy, I’m predicting that I’ll be roundly ignored and then proved right. Although unlike Cassandra, I hope to avoid insanity. And living as a king’s concubine. There are a number of reasons why lender file audits are on the increase and are set to be more prevalent: In times of economic ...

In the last 18 months 12 lenders have changed their Part 2 Handbook instructions relating to 5.4.6. That particular section addresses the question ‘ Does the lender accept search insurance and, if yes, what are the lender's specific requirements? Even though some lenders dictate a blanket refusal of search insurance many lenders will accept depending on whether the case is a remortgage or purchase. Some lay down specific requirements relating to buy-to-let transactions. A significant proportion of lenders make it clear that where a lawyer takes out a policy they do so their own risk and must give an unqualified COT. Occasionally, a lender clarifies what is policy must cover. Skipton, for example state ‘Any policy must cover our successors in title or be readily assignable (with no onerous conditions)’ The Mortgage Lender (TML) who launched in 2016 is the latest lender to make significant changes to section 5.4.6 of their handbook instructions. What makes their change particul...

The Lexsure Academy has seen a ten-fold increase in bookings for their in-house ‘power hour’ training in the last in the last year. And there’s a rising trend for mixing things up by scheduling a morning course. Nutritionists often say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but how many of your conveyancers routinely skip breakfast in an attempt to get some productive work in ahead of the influx of emails and calls? It’s a self-defeating manoeuvre that saves a small amount of time but can reduce efficiency all day, making it harder to focus and remember. Not only is everyone’s brain more alert and receptive in the morning, evidence suggests that people are also more likely to retain what they learn. So, next time you’re considering an efficient mealtime session to add value to your firm, don’t just fall back on the ever-popular ‘lunch and learn’. Set the tone and offer your lawyers in-house training over breakfast one day: with food for stomach and the brain...

Skipton Building Society is the latest lender to change their Handbook requirements introducing a reasonableness test when it comes to leasehold event fees. The new instruction at section 5.14.9 reads ‘....event fees must remain at a reasonable level at all times during the lease term’ This begs a couple of questions: “What is an ‘event fee’?” and, “What is ‘a reasonable level’ when it comes to an event fee?” Ordinarily, the reference to a leasehold event fee is within the context of a retirement property leases . Nevertheless I am yet to find a single lender who, in their Part 2 Handbook instructions, narrowly limits the definition of event fees solely to retirement properties. In the absence of such a limitation I expect lenders to assert that an event fee would cover fees referenced in a lease such as Transfer Fees, Subletting Fees*, Management Fees and Consent Fees. These are all examples of ‘events’ where a fee is applied. If there are unreasonable fees specified in th...

Part I: Pros and cons from the pros When sourcing conveyancing training, the traditional training option used to be external courses. More recently, e-learning (such as webinars) has become popular, but what about training’s rising star: in-house training? The Lexsure Academy is seeing increasing numbers of law firms considering in-house training courses but is this the perfect solution? Does it suit all types of firms? Is it better for firms of one size or another? What other factors should be taken into account? In this post, we give you the benefit of our experience of training hundreds of conveyancers a year. We’ll lay out the advantages, disadvantages and other considerations you might like to have in mind when considering in-house training, so you know if it’s the right path for you and your firm and we’ll give you some useful hints and tips along the way. The advantages of in-house E-learning’s drawbacks – For some needs, e-learning can be a good option but its dr...

The latest conveyancing scam reported in the Telegraph this weekend has seen a victim feeling “utterly alone” following the theft of almost £600,000. The victim, whose mortgage had yet to come through, said he felt under immense pressure to make the transfer. He borrowed from his company and made a bank transfer of £593,055.20 to an Ulster Bank account, the Irish arm of Royal Bank of Scotland, on Jan 18, as per the fake solicitor’s instructions. The fraud only came to light on Feb 9 when the victim found out the real solicitor had no knowledge of the transfer. The crime was reported immediately to NatWest, Ulster Bank and Action Fraud. The reader also tried to report the scam to various London police stations but was referred back to Action Fraud or told to call 101. “No one seemed to have any record of my name, reference number and the case. And I’ve no idea what to do,” he said. The article in the Telegraph quotes NatWest as saying that it was “aware” of the case and was cu...

More than 400 lawyers used Lexsure’s Report on Title paragraph database last month seeking assistance in drafting this crucial document in the conveyancing process. Firms struggle to find the time to create a firm-wide index of newly created paragraphs to be made available for future use. Lawyers readily admit to me that notwithstanding the constant moving landscape of conveyancing risk, their precedent Report on Title is updated no more than once or twice a year. Here is a list of the most common search terms used by lawyers seeking assistance: Ground Rent Source of Funds Lease Term Minimum Lease Term Unexpired Headlease Article 4 Septic Solar Chancel Almost one thousand firms registered for last year’s webinar series on Reports on Title by Lexsure. Three more webinars entitled 'How and Why Technology is Changing the way Conveyancers Report to Clients' have been added for 2018. At the time of writing this blog I understand that there are only a few spac...

So what were the hot conveyancing topics in 2017? Fraud, Leasehold Changes, Lender Compliance and The fourth Anti Money Laundering Directive were all front of mind at various points of the year. The Lexsure Academy hosted on 26 webinars in 2017, many of which were sponsored by Searches UK , covering a range of topics. The popularity of certain webinars may be viewed as an interesting measure as to the issues that conveyancers are most concerned with. Here are the figures relating to the five most attended webinar subjects: Leasehold is Changing - Updating Your Documents (997 Registrants) The Lenders’ Handbook - How to Stay on Top of Changes (721 Registrants) Pre-Completion Checklists - Do You Know What You Are Missing (690 Registrants)  Building Reports on Title/How Technology is Changing the ROT (662 Registrants) Lender Handbook Updates 2017 - An Overview (540 Registrants) The head of training at Lexsure anticipates that the three most popular sessions for ...

It has been a busy start to 2018 when it comes to lenders changing their Handbook instructions. Three weeks into to the new year eleven lenders have updated their instructions via Part 2 of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook for conveyancers. Twenty six sections have been changed. Examples of top lenders who have made updated their Part 2’s in 2018 include: Halifax  Bank of Scotland  Lloyds Bank  Santander  The Mortgage Business  Atom Bank  LENDERmonitor provides protection to conveyancers from the risk of missing updates to Part 2 of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook. With the LENDERmonitor alert service , solicitors and conveyancers receive an email notification any time lenders of interest make changes to their policies. Staying abreast of policy changes is particularly important at a time when lenders are making a significant number of changes and solicitors and conveyancers are at greater risk of being sued for non-complia...

In the last twelve months the conveyancing fraternity witnessed significant changes to Part 2 of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook. This, combined with the press and government focusing a spotlight on leasehold, resulted in firms considering how they should upgraded their Report on Title .     In response to lender changes and in anticipation of legislative action many new paragraphs were added as optional precedent text to the Lexsure’s Report on Title in 2017 by the  network of lawyers using the software. Here is a list of what I consider to be the Top Ten areas where new paragraphs were indexed in 2017 for future use : Ground Rent Escalation  Remaining Lease Term Less than 90 Years  High Ground Rent  Original Lease Term Less than 125 Source of Funds  Contributors Towards Purchase Price New Build - Long Term Completion Date Statutory Matters Concerning Leasehold  EPC Result - F/G Rating  Limitation of Enquirie...

I sometimes come across lawyers complaining about how long it takes the Land Registry to register title. According to Andrew Robertson, Head of Customer Policy at the Land Registry responding to a comment on a blog entitled ‘ Opening our conveyancer data ’ commented  ‘... we aren't able to process in the region of 40% of the applications we have pending because we're waiting for something else to be provided or done before they can proceed’. The top 5 reasons for requisition are as follows: 1. Restrictions (20%) - consents or certificates needed to satisfy the terms of restrictions on the register 2. Discharges (13%) - discharge of charge evidence needed 3. Variations and discrepancies in names (11%) 4. Signing and witnessing of deeds (6%) 5. Identity verification issues (3%)