Tag: Law

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Ten New Year’s Work Resolutions for Local Authority Conveyancers

bruceandholly

It seems strange that in today’s corporate world, the only people to have full secretarial support are those who are least likely to need it. They are the captains of industry who spend most of their time in meetings instead of sitting in front of a screen pushing out documentation in volume. For the rest of us, it’s about making the best of what limited support is available to us. One of the positives coming out of the covid lockdowns was a permanent change in working habits, which means that we can do more of our work from the back bedroom instead of traipsing through the morning and evening rush hours. Who would want to go back to that? It was also fortuitous that this change in working habits coincided with technical developments which enable us to meet on teams at the moment’s notice instead of taking an afternoon out of the office to meet face to face. So what has all this got to do with New Year’s resolutions? Just this! In conveyancing, time is money. A delayed completion often means a delayed rental stream or a delayed capital receipt. And everyone loses.

If progress on a transaction stalls completely, other things will supervene and it will begin to unravel. One of the issues I have with traditional time recording is that it rewards inefficiency, with the slowest most inexperienced fee earner charging out the most time for a transaction. When it should be all about unit-cost, meaning that the faster you are able to work without compromising on quality or accuracy, the better value you are providing to your corporate client. In this post, I provide suggestions for ten New Year work-resolutions which can help you become one of the most efficient conveyancers in your team, simply by making the best use of the resources which are available to you . Here they are:

  1. Dictate! Dictate Dictate! All computers which are Windows 10 and above, have a voice dictation facility. But you will need to find it and enable it. Voice dictation is improving all the time but is still far from perfect. Unlike a secretary, automated voice dictation cannot interpret what you have said. It will simply transcribe what it thinks you have said. So if I dictate the word, ‘ comma’, it will tell me to ‘Call my Mum’. If I say ‘draft’, as in document, it will give me the draught which is blowing in through the open window behind me. So why do I use voice dictation? Because even with its many faults, it is still three times quicker than typing everything out longhand.
  2. Purchase a wired mouse, a wired keyboard, a wide-screen monitor and a wired headset which you are going to use if you are going to dictate. Unless you have micro fingers, don’t try doing all your work on the tiny keyboard which is attached to your laptop. Invest in a wide screen monitor so you don’t have to squint. Using a wide screen also makes it easier to proofread documentation and reduces the risk of mistakes.
  3. Take an interest in legal developments, even if they don’t directly relate to your work. If you are working in a bubble, it is too easy to miss the big changes which are happening in mainstream conveyancing. Subscribe to an online newsletter like ‘Today’s Conveyancer,’ which is aimed at the high street practitioner.
  4. Take time to get to know your corporate clients and learn what they really want from an in-house legal service. It’s not about being ‘cheap and cheerful’. Instead of huddling together with other lawyers, try to become part of the client team.
  5. Be serious about meeting your financial targets, even if colleagues are not meeting theirs.
  6. The 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. core hours slot is sacrosanct. Nothing must be allowed to get in the way of chargeable work. Try to keep training and other distractions out of those core hours.
  7. Be prepared to innovate and discover ways to improve productivity. Set up templates and standardise wherever possible. Don’t send out documentation in draft if you can send out an engrossment.
  8. Look for ways to raise your own professional profile. Remember that meeting continuous professional development (CPD) requirements need not only involve being a passive listener. You can also earn points by presenting training to clients and prospective clients and raise your own profile in the process.
  9. Have confidence in your own professional judgement. And be prepared to provide your client with clear and robust advice. If you don’t have confidence in your own professional judgement, why should anybody else have confidence in you?
  10. Never pass up an opportunity to get into management, even if it’s only for a few months to cover somebody’s maternity leave. Management experience does not only look good on your CV. Leadership is also a valuable life skill which can only be learned by doing. And if you go into management, make sure that you look, act, and sound like a manager, because it will affect the way other people react to you.
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Cornwall Council’s Car Park Outsourcing: Legal Concerns Explained

bruceandholly
Photo by Jens Mahnke on Pexels.com

I have to query the legality of the proposal by Cornwall Council to outsource the management of up to 22 of its car parks, to take them out of statutory control under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. Isn’t that precisely what Robert Goodwill MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, warned against in his open letter to local authority parking managers of 16th September 2014? Well not quite! Goodwill’s letter was aimed at some councils who thought it okay to opt themselves out of the statutory local authority parking regime and instead manage their car parks under Schedule 4 of the Protections of Freedoms Act 2012, which now governs the management of private car parks. It was the 2012 Act which abolished unregulated wheel clamping on private land and instead introduced a regulated process to enable the owners of private car parks to manage their operations. Though why any local authority could have thought it lawful to opt out of statutory regulation is beyond me. But Cornwall’s case is different because the Minister’s 2014 letter makes no mention of leasing arrangements, which is what Cornwall Council is proposing in this case. Hang on!

The prospective lessee of Cornwall’s 22 car parks is not any old company. According to a council report, the prospective lessee will in this case be a wholly owned subsidiary of Cornwall Council. Least, that’s what the Scrutiny Committee report of 4th September 2024 states:

“Following a successful trial at Tower Headland ( Little Fistral) in Newquay, a new model of managing some of our car parks has been considered which supports the principle of decentralisation. Essentially this involves the transfer of a car park site by means of a lease to a council owned company, who would then manage the land; paying rental at least sustaining the income to the council and removing the liability of the council to maintain and manage the asset.”

A council-owned company! How arms length is that? The only other companies we can see mentioned in the reports are the privately owned Treveth and Conserve, which would be managing the day-to-day operation of the car parks.

Key to the legality of outsourcing an off- street parking place is paragraph 3(1) of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which defines ‘relevant land’ to which Schedule 4 applies and which is stated as follows:

“In this schedule relevant land means land (including land above or below ground level) other than:

a) a highway maintained as a public expense ( within the meaning of section 329(1) of the Highways Act 1980;

b) a parking place which is provided or controlled by a traffic Authority;

c) any land not falling within paragraphs a or b on which the parking of a vehicle is subject to statutory control.”

The other thing which I noticed when reading the officer reports is that, as far as I can see, no mention was made of the Minister’s 2014 warning letter. Nor of Schedule 4 of the Protections of Freedoms Act 2012. Forgive me! But aren’t those ‘material considerations’ for any decision of this type? Apparently not. Let’s see what the Parking Adjudicator makes of it.

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Expert Guidance for Local Authority Conveyancing Professionals

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Photo by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS on Pexels.com

Updated guidance for the 34,500 in-house solicitors practising in England and Wales, re-states how those solicitors should respond to the challenges of working for a corporate employer, particularly where employer-demands conflict with the general professional responsibilities which apply to all UK  lawyers.  Published  18 November, 2024 under the heading, ‘Dedicated Guidance Issued to Support In-House Solicitors’, it provides advice on how to identify and deal with potential conflicts of interest as well as client confidentiality.  It also provides advice to corporate employers on how to manage in-house solicitors in a way which does not compromise their professional responsibilities.  But there is a limit as to how much information you can put in a couple of dozen pages.

The opening chapters of Local Authority Conveyancing Law and Practice UK. also deals with the same subject matter, but in much greater detail.  It addresses the circumstances when a practising certificate is required as well as issues relating to anti-money laundering; professional training; avoiding conflicts of interest and client confidentiality.  But whilst the SRA guidance is written for all in-house solicitors, Local Authority Conveyancing Law and Practice focuses on that a tiny proportion of solicitors forming part of an in-house conveyancing team.

It also deals with the challenges facing local authority conveyancing teams, which now exist in a competitive environment where nothing can be taken for granted.  It explains what a corporate client really wants from an in-house team, which is not about being cheap and cheerful.  The book will also encourage you to look seriously at any opportunities for getting into management.  Because management experience does not only look good on a CV.  It is also a valuable life skill.  But no local authority conveyancing book would be complete without a raft of reference material as well as practical tips on how to manage a conveyancing transaction when you don’t have access to a client account.

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1920’s Prohibition Revisited

bruceandholly
Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV on Pexels.com

Haven’t we learned anything from 1920s prohibition? When stupid politicians voted to ban alcohol consumption across the United States, and in so doing, created the model for organised crime, which still exists today, and lives on In the drug cartels of South America. So shouldn’t we be de-criminalising instead of criminalising otherwise lawful social activity? But here we go again, with Starmer’s plan to ban tobacco smoking in pub gardens and parks, where it does not affect anyone except the smoker.

Sunak started all of this nonsense with his talk about raising the smoking age every year, so that generations going forward will never be able to legally smoke. He did it to take away attention from the housing and cost of living crisis which his government had created.So are we going to see police officers frisking down young people, just in case they are hiding cigarettes? That’s going to be great for community relations! Now Starmer has picked up the reins.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a smoker. But I don’t like to see anyone being put out of work just because someone wants to make a political point. Nor do I wish to see the creation of a new criminal underground. Haven’t we got enough criminals already? Or police chasing round after kids and pub- smokers, when they should be catching burglars and shoplifters. If Starmer wants to ban something, he should ban online gambling.That causes much more psychological damage and addiction. As well as family breakups.But no one seems bothered about that. In fact, I’d guess that if you’ve got the wit and the know-how, anyone could start up a gambling platform from their own back bedroom.You wouldn’t need to employ anyone. And you wouldn’t need to rent any premises.You just pay for the software and the marketing.Then sit back and watch the cash roll in. It almost seems too easy.

business, housing, Law, Uncategorized

What a New Labour Government Means for Conveyancers in England and Wales

bruceandholly
Photo by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS on Pexels.com

With a new government on 5 July 2024 now a cert, it is time to think about what this means for UK conveyancers.  Here are our own predictions for the year ahead.

Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024

As this non-controversial piece of legislation reached the statute book in the closing days of the Sunak government, it only remains for Starmer to issue regulations bringing it into force.  We expect this to be amongst the first tasks for the new Labour government.  The legislation is important because it changes the process for dealing with statutory residential lease extensions and enfranchisements as well as regulating freehold estate management.

Renters Reform Bill

This bill, which was already part way through parliament, was one of the legislative casualties of the general election.  The key provision of this bill was the removal of section 21 non-fault evictions.  Although the removal of section 21 evictions is not quite a roll-back to the bad old days of rent-controls, it will certainly make many would-be landlords and mortgage lenders think twice before going into this market.  It may also lead to a loss in private rented accommodation as landlords sell up when tenants vacate instead of re-letting.  When it was first introduced on 1 April, 1989, the ability of landlords to regain possession of their properties on two months notice was not particularly problematic because there was a healthy housing market, which made it easier for prospective tenants to pick and choose where they wanted to live and to negotiate how much they wanted to pay.  Unfortunately, that is no longer the case because of the depletion of the social-rented sector.  So our expectation is that the new government will waste no time in re- launching this bill and pushing it through to royal assent.

Right-to-buy

Unlike Scotland and Wales, we are not expecting the new government to abolish right-to-buy in its entirety but simply to scale it back, in terms of discount, to what was available when Gordon Brown left office in 2010.  At that time, the maximum discount on a right-to-buy sale was capped at £16,000.  Our expectation is that this £16,000 cap might be increased to reflect price-inflation but fall well short of the generous discounts introduced by David Cameron when he took power in 2010.  What this means is that purchasing under right-to buy may no longer be the attractive proposition which it is today.  There are also the transitional arrangements which will need to be put in place for right-to buy purchases which are underway at the time the new legislation is introduced.  We are not expecting any changes to right-to-buy to operate retrospectively, which would mean that work-in-progress will be allowed to continue to completion of the transaction.

Reform of the Town Planning System

This is going to be the most difficult task for the incoming government as it will be trying to push back against a bureaucratic inertia which has built up over decades and in which the ‘No!’ lobby has remained supreme.  It is not just about restoring the house building targets which had already existed until the recent abolition by the outgoing Conservative administration.  It is about breaking through the treacle.  The bottom line is that town planning is too politicised.  With too many vested interests.  It shouldn’t be like that.  It’s about making the most efficient use of land.  Key to breaking through this inertia is to simplify and speed up the appeals process, so that any developer who feels that their application is being frustrated by local politicians, can quickly get their planning application referred to a third party for determination.

V. Charles Ward

Solicitor and Legal Associate RTPI – 15th June 2024