SLC Annual Conference – 23rd November 2016

28^th November 2016

This year’s Annual Conference, in association with the Bold Legal Group (BLG), took place on 23rdNovember at the Riverside Centre, Derby. Our new host was Kate Faulkner, a leading property consultant and property market commentator who has presented for the BBC and currently co-hosts LBC’s Property Hour every Thursday evening.

After a welcome from the SLC Chairman, Simon Law and Rob Hailstone, BLG’s CEO, the day started with the latest CLC update from Stephen Ward looking at the results of their independently run survey, the perceptions of the CLC as a regulator and the LSB as their oversight regulator.

Neil Buckley, CEO at the Legal Services Board, came next and followed on nicely with a brief background into what the LSB does as an independent body that oversees the regulation of legal services England and Wales. This involves holding to account both the CLC and the SRA.

Darren Cox from the Legal Ombudsman explained the work that the Legal Ombudsman does as an independent and impartial scheme set up to help resolve legal service disputes and gave examples of dealing with complaints.

A refreshment break followed giving all the delegates time to visit the exhibition stands and network with colleagues. We were then joined by Tim Prior, MD at PNCR Legal, specialising in negligence and compliance issues and gave examples of two recent fraud cases regarding purrunsing and OWC.

Mike Westcott Rudd, Land Registry Board Legal Advisor, gave an update on the LR and privatisation and then in the afternoon made the welcome announcement, following the Autumn Statement, that the Government would not be privatising the Land Registry.

June Deasy, Head of Policy at the CML, concluded the morning session with an update on the CML Handbook and news of the mortgage body merger which is aiming to go live in Summer 2017 but very much business as usual in the meantime.

A break for lunch and another chance to visit the stands and attend the SLC AGM.

Bill Hudspith, from Docusign, kicked off the afternoon session with the latest on eSignatures and was followed by Emma Vigus from Howden on fraud and the importance of PI Insurance and announced the introduction of the new cyber crime policy (further details available shortly).

Our next speaker was Tim Powell, Regional Tribunal Judge, who gave cases of leasehold and other disputes with the most common being service charges, admin charges and breaches of covenant.

Our final speaker of the day was Hannah Mackinlay, a regular at our conferences and road shows, on topical conveyancing issues and the various client guides she has written for members, the latest of which is on searches and will be available shortly.

After a round-up of the day’s topics by Kate, Simon and Rob thanked everyone for attending another great event and it was then on to the conference dinner at the iPro Stadium with entertainment by Indeedy Musical Bingo giving members and guests a chance to relax and dance the night away. Our thanks to LFS for sponsoring the pre-dinner drinks reception.

We would like to thank all our sponsors – PSG, Stewart Title, Future Climate Info, Infotrack, Geodesys and Howden.