About CQS Conveyancing

Research by a peer to peer lending platform Sourced Capital has found that the UK property market could see a double-digit rate of property value decline, with the market taking over five years to recover, while the number of property repossessions could also soar as a result of a COVID-19 induced recession. It is too early to know if we are about to return to the late 80s with huge repossession numbers or whether lenders actually take a more pragmatic view. It would seem that even the more optimistic of commentators expect the repossession market to re-emerge. 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 u...

Possibly due to the increasing trend of exchanging and completing simultaneously, Nationwide  Building Society have issue the following update to lawyers concerning fund requests: Help us to continue to help you & our members… Due to unprecedented volumes, we are implementing an earlier cut-off for same-day funds requests.  From 25/06/20 up to and including 01/07/2020, we will be unable to accept same-day requests for funds after 10 am on Lender Exchange. As a reminder, our normal practice is to release mortgage advance monies electronically via BACS transfer to your chosen bank account rather than by CHAPS. For this we require at least five working days’ notice of the completion date. If funds are required in less than five days, please see the offer special condition (Charge for transferring the loan to the conveyancer). Any requests for funds with less than 48 hours’ notice will continue to be assessed but are not guaranteed. Please continue to help us by ...

In being a software architect designing products for lawyers I can't be certain that all the effort poured into a creation will be appreciated.  The same is surely true or a painter or song writer. Do they 'know' for sure what will be successful?  As a creative person it's easy to get disheartened about the lack of applause and upside immediately after you have created something. In looking to the outside world for valuation and recognition for Lexsure's products I readily admit to worrying about appreciation and validation.  Last night I received two emails in the space of half an hour concerning Lexsure's report on title technology ( e-ROT ). Here's an extract of an email trail with a lawyer after advising that her account will go live soon. No doubt she was attracted by the time saving aspects of the software:  Lawyer : WOOHOO. Right now I am just preparing a report on title and making a note of specific enqui...

[From two years ago, even more relevant right now] 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 few 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...

Since 2008  Lexsure’s software solutions have been adopted by over one thousand firms to assist in managing conveyancing risk and automating key documents such as Reports on Title. That being said, until recently, Lexsure products have been perceived  as a ‘great to have’ rather than a ‘must have’.  Now more than ever, Lexsure’s portfolio of cloud-based tools including it’s pre-completion checklists, CQS Core Practice Management  Standard  Policy update service and LM04 Policy Search  are regarded as crucial for a firm’s survival in today’s unprecedented crisis.  Over 300 law firms in the last three weeks have attended Lexsure’s interactive remote web conferences on how to use the Lexsure products. On-demand training videos have been viewed hundreds of times in the same period. Conveyancing practices face a new environment. Firms now have extra motivation to explore alternative ways of working and provide new tools to up-skill their team with a view ...

In the last three months Lexsure has witnessed significant activity by lenders changing their Handbook requirements. Whilst firms currently encounter a slowdown in activity from buyers and sellers there is no hold-up in lenders revising their instructions to law firms. Here are some of the facts and figures: Lender Sections Changed Separate Events Barclays Bank UK PLC 27 2 Halifax 3 1 Aldermore Bank  12 4 Coventry Building Society 3 2 Lloyds 2 1 Atom Bank 13 3 HSBC 1 1 During the same period there has been a significant uptake in services such as LENDERmonitor . I can only assume that this is due to anticipated file requests checking for Handbook breaches. Enquiries by firms concerning the LM04 lender policy search increased by 300% compared to the same period last year.  55% of LM04 searches in the last two months revealed lender changes. The most searched lender was HSBC.  With the end of the ...