Three issues conveyancers should watch out for in 2016

It’s not every day conveyancing-related stories make national headlines outside agony aunt columns, but in November 2015 we saw the chancellor raise the possibility of the Land Registry’s privatisation again in the Autumn Statement – so subtly, I may add, that you can be excused for blinking and missing it – and, suddenly, conveyancing searches became a national issue. 

Million-dollar idea

The last time the highly controversial plans for the £1.2bn privatisation were considered was under the auspices of the previous coalition government, but they were shut down by the then business secretary and Liberal Democrat Vince Cable in June 2014 after the registry’s employees rallied passionately against the idea. Reports claimed ‘staff issues’ caused logjams while some felt a privatisation would have been ‘just too complicated’, potentially involving new legislation. With Cable off the seat, it now appears the Tory government is reconsidering the idea of a salubrious billion-pound sale to reduce the budget deficit. 

Staffing issues and the complexities of privatisation aside, conveyancers and providers are infuriated by the decision to resurrect attempts to sell what’s in its essence a national asset; in fact, in 2014, when the government launched the consultation, the Law Society responded with the harshest possible criticism: ‘The Land Registry is part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure and we are concerned that the proposals for Land Registry could undermine the [r]egister’s integrity and introduce conflicts of interest with potentially adverse economic results.’ 

Yes, the Law Society believed a sale could ‘undermine the register’s integrity’, the same register that collectively holds the deeds to everyone’s most valuable asset. 

Now, with the possibility of privatisation back, the idea of an investment bank holding the keys to the nation’s silver has once again got conveyancers on tenterhooks. There is no need for undue panic, though. 2016 will hopefully see the industry rallying against such privatisation, hopefully for it to be dropped once and for all. 

Plans for landlords

The stamp duty changes to take effect from 1 April are a topical concern, but are not likely to impact transaction volumes for the year; rather, we’re likely to see a surge in transactions in the first quarter as some landlords choose to expedite their plans to purchase an additional property. So, the redistribution in monthly transactions will lead to a spike in activity in the first quarter, but is then likely to be followed by a lull. This doesn’t, however, mean the spike can be taken indifferently by conveyancers, as the relationships forged with clients at this point will prove key to repeat business once the buy-to-let onslaught abates. 

Conveyancers must push to complete deals before the surcharge date of 1 April: a lender may be able to turn around an offer quickly, but it’s the conveyancer, often unfairly blamed for slowing down the transaction, who will need to be on top of the process. Goldsmith Williams Solicitors, for example, has recently taken on additional resources to tackle the extra work load. 

The human error

Fraud remains a key concern and will be on top of the agenda in 2016 for conveyancers looking to ringfence their systems against a breach. We can hope, however, that 2016 is the year that the various parties involved in a transaction learn to identify the one symptom that slips through everyone’s net: common-sense human errors.

According to The Telegraph, criminals hacked into emails of people buying and selling houses, stealing more than £10m from a total of 91 unaware victims, a tragedy that begs the question, why was sensitive information such as bank details exchanged via unsecure email? There are innovations in the pipeline, of course, the most recent one called ‘distributed ledger technology’, which shares encrypted legal and financial data between verified parties. 

It would also help to do a technology audit, as solicitors who haven’t recently upgraded their systems are more vulnerable to newer, more lethal forms of viruses and hacking. A business is, essentially, an organism interacting with other systems in its ecosystem, so it’s also worth considering whether or not your customers and suppliers have ringfenced their businesses. Often suppliers that have been in the industry for a long period of time have unsecured legacy systems, unprotected against the latest malware. 

Law and property form the bedrock of the conveyancing industry and while the former is resolute and unflinching in its glory, property – impacted by the government’s agenda and global volatility – remains unpredictable and exciting. It’s hard to regret being swept up in its turbulence. So, conveyancing solicitors: watch this space.

Mark Riddick is chairman of Search Acumen @SearchAcumen www.search-acumen.co.uk