Conveyancing and property services group, Simplify, has acquired Cook Taylor Woodhouse Solicitors as part of an ongoing growth strategy, strengthening its presence in London and the South East.
Cook Taylor Woodhouse Solicitors, also known as CTW, is a top 15 UK conveyancer.
The acquisition comes a year on from the creation of Simplify and adds CTW to the group’s stable of market-leading businesses.
These include conveyancing firms Advantage Property Lawyers, DC Law, JS Law & Premier Property Lawyers (each of which is a Top 10 conveyancer in its own right), the leading conveyancing panel management and property services specialist, Move with Us, together with My Home Move and the QualitySolicitors brand and marketing network.
With the addition of CTW to the group, Simplify now completes more home mover transactions than the next 4 groups of conveyancing firms combined, and panel manages more still.
The acquisition also confirms Simplify’s position as the largest conveyancing group in Greater London by transaction volumes (Volume analysis covers 2018 & 2019 from ‘The Conveyancing Map’, based on HMLR transaction data.)
David Grossman, CEO of Simplify said:
“The strategic acquisition of CTW adds further strength to Simplify’s market leading group.
“We acquired CTW because of its excellent reputation, strong team and scale in London and the South East, which will complement Simplify’s own strengths.
“In a turbulent time for the housing market, it is great to be able to look forward and continue delivering our plans for growth and to further strengthen our position as the undisputed number 1 in UK conveyancing.
“Over the past year we have demonstrated our ability to successfully deploy our award winning technology across multiple conveyancing firms in the group and expand the reach of our market leading eWay digital platform.
“While we continue to grow all parts of the group organically, we will also explore other opportunities to add further strength to the group through further acquisitions”
Martin Bowers of CTW who will continue in his capacity as Director leading CTW, said:
“We are delighted to have joined Simplify, a move that will help fuel CTW’s continued growth in London and the South East.
“I have great respect for Simplify and its innovative and customer-focused approach to conveyancing.
“CTW will have an exciting and prosperous future within Simplify, benefitting from the scale of the group’s operations and the exceptional technology platforms that Simplify has built for its clients and Introducers.”
But if in the interests of the consumer, referral fees were banned and the council of licensed conveyancers prohibited acting for both parties to a transaction ……………….
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I’ll say the same thing I said last week on another thread when there was an announcement of another factory expanding their operations.
In essence appalling news for that forgotten person the consumer. There must be somebody out there somewhere who can take a stand for buyers and sellers to protect them against these behemoths who put profit before service, a pile it high philosophy before professional standards and technology before expertise?
Whrre did conveyancing go so wrong as a profession?
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Alan, drop me a line at DigitalMove.co.uk
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This ‘Simplify’s’ things even further for me. CTW are THE perfect match for them, along with Advantage, Premier et al. In my lexicon, the acronym stands for something completely different.
@ Alan Murray – It went wrong in conveyancing when the ‘profession’ element went out the window, for example paying one lawyer £28k a year to oversee a room full of call centre operatives ticking boxes on a screen for £14k a year.
It went wrong when conveyancers still charged full abortive costs when a deal fell through.
It went wrong when agents, lawyers and brokers formed a back-scratching referral trivium to the point that the revenue stream generated became critical to their survival.
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