The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has criticised a new report by the Legal Services Consumer Panel, accusing it of misrepresenting the regulator’s approach and wrongly linking conveyancers to issues highlighted in a BBC Panorama investigation last year.
The CLC said the programme exposed wrongdoing by unregulated estate agents, not conveyancers, and renewed its call for the introduction of statutory regulation for estate agents to strengthen consumer protection.
The regulator also defended its decision to review conveyancing practices following the Panorama programme, arguing that it was acting proactively in the public interest despite the issues falling outside its direct regulatory remit.
The response comes after the Legal Services Consumer Panel published ‘A Regulatory Framework for the Future‘, which examined the performance of legal services regulators and raised concerns about aspects of the CLC’s approach.
Sheila Kumar, CEO of the CLC, said: “We are extremely disappointed in the panel for the inaccurate representation of the CLC in its report.
“First of all, last year’s BBC Panorama investigation highlighted wrongdoing by unregulated estate agents, not by conveyancers. Nevertheless, the CLC took the decision that it would again look at this topic in the context of its mandate, the regulation of conveyancers, to see if anything more could be done to improve the situation of consumers in the absence of regulation of estate agents.
“It is perhaps notable that we were the only regulator of conveyancing to do this. Responding to market intelligence is the sign of a proactive regulator with a resolute focus on acting in the public interest and the capability and resources to do so. It is worrying that the panel misread this so badly.
“We continue to press for the regulation of estate agents on this and wider consumer protection grounds, and in the meantime have identified areas where we can strengthen transparency and consumer protections in our code.
“The panel also talks about our ‘active recruitment of regulated firms’. Our conveyancing and probate firms benefit from the CLC’s focused regulation and the high standards we set for entry for both individuals and practices. This means CLC regulation is good for consumers and good for lawyers.
“The Legal Services Act was designed to give both a choice and the CLC is simply demonstrating that it is a good choice to make. Our specialism is why we are one of the key organisations leading the work on home-buying reform, ensuring it works for the public and those who advise them.”
Comments (18)
Blaming unregulated agents is fully justified, as hiding critical legal details during property deals often leads to terrible consequences for buyers. While purchasing my first house, I also encountered a dishonest realtor who intentionally concealed a messy history of boundary disputes with the nearby residents. To clarify this confusing situation on my own and verify the actual owners of the adjacent plots without any agent’s help, I used the NeighborWho platform, where I managed to quickly access comprehensive property ownership records. The official history reports I found there allowed me to successfully win the legal dispute and secure my land rights. Conducting independent background checks using open public records is the best protection against real estate malpractice.
Good post!
It’s easy to criticise and difficult to take the time and trouble to understand and this is true of both conveyancers and estate agents.
This is one of the main issues with the buying and selling process – that conveyancers and estate agents don’t get on to the detriment of the sale and ultimately the client. We’re all having a scrap and trying to score points whilst the client is wondering what on earth is going on.
It’s the mechanics of the sale – a lack of information up front, fragile chains and an adversarial legal system (which is fine for criminal courts but not needed for conveyancing) which are the issues. The system is really poor, we all know it, and when it goes awry we’re trying our utmost not to be the one to blame.
From a consumer perspective, the marketing to sale agreed section of the sale scores reasonably well but the section from sale agreed to exchange is very poor and this is where our concentration is required – not a debate between professionals as who is to blame.
Whilst it is probably a good thing to regulate estate agents, it won’t remove the issues it seeks to address. Solicitors are regulated but many don’t score well with client satisfaction so it’s clearly not the complete answer.
I speak only from my five offices and what I see first hand, I am sure all solicitors are not the same but here are my facts:
They work 4 days a week
A property cant exchange today because one solicitor has gone home………. at 3:30pm
I’m working from home today and the file is at work???? honestly.
So busy but have no answer when you say, you work 4 days a week so take on less work.
Our firms solicitor can’t sign the file off as they are off today.
I met with a firms owner and he told me it is impossible to get good ones that don’t want massive money and a four day week.
The majority of conveyancers do not delay transactions for no reason. The system is antiquated and the number of time-consuming laborious tasks they now have to deal with it beyond a joke (ID, AML, SoF, SoW, BSA, etc). They have to report numerous issues to lenders, who often have different rules and criteria, and they are often waiting for third parties to respond i.e. managing agents and search suppliers. They are also interrupted throughout the day, taking them away from the work they are paid to be doing. Some get paid if a transaction aborts, some don’t, but their main intention is to get their client to purchase the property they want ensuring they can live in it without interruption and sell it without problem.
Yes, there are good and bad firms and individuals (like there are in estate agency). However, this constant tit for tat blaming is only doing two things, making working relationships worse, and making transaction times even longer.
I hope that in the Autumn my new Conveyancing Improvement Collective initiative will, gradually, help resolve some of the issues that cause the most problems.
If they have too much to do they should not take on m ore cases than they can deal with
I use a few sold who I think are great – they inform me on an almost daily basis how impossible it is to deal with some of their fellow solicitors
Quite agree, double your fees conveyancers and halve your workloads, get paid more and attract and train new young blood.
Good luck with that idea
Could just work harder maybe instead??
LOL
s
I am not paying double became some lazy lawyer in the chain is slow and useless lolol
I think the heat has got to you:
“If they have too much to do they should not take on m ore cases than they can deal with”
Why
I don’t take on mote than I can deal with
Surely that is basic common sense
Cannot reply again
Have work to do I guess as a lawyer you have clients waiting for you to get on with their job instead of being on here?
Conveyancing is just an admin job
Ask them to do that in your little forum then maybe?
Ok, time for me to leave this puerile thread. At least I am trying to do more than posting inane comments, and I put my name to my posts.
Puerile?
Saying some who does not share your blinkered opinion of lawyers has heat stroke is not puerile and inane then?
Making infantile insults like that is not puerile and inane then?
Expecting a company to not take on more work than it can dal with is puerile!!
Toddle off little chap
Conveying solicitors are similar to builders in the way they operate..take on multiple instructions, start them to show the new customer somethings happening..then start another job..repeat. When they`re good & ready..they`ll send out contracts.
Agents may not be perfect but they cannot and do not hold up the legal process
They want to exchange to get PAID
Sols get paid if nothing ever completes – they do no0t give a s—
Lawyers are a waste of space in most cases
What rubbish passing the buck to estate agents. Every sale of mine this year has been delayed by weeks and months in some cases due to incompetent and slow conveyancers. One has a 48 hour turnaround just to look at a communication which is totally impractical and stressful for all when for example trying to arrange a completion date. There is no excuse for such dismal and ridged practices in 2026. Despite pleas over this there was no flexibility at all. The customers always suffer and it’s the archaic legal system that is the issue not estate agents who do their best to support and please buyers and sellers alike. It’s a simple fact many conveyancers just don’t give a damn when it comes to customer service and making people stressed and miserable. No wonder most say they will never move again. And we only try and use the better ones!