Our September York Meetings, future Conference & Dinner plans, plus conveyancers receiving their dues on fraud prevention

First of all, a big thank you to all legal and affiliate members who were able to attend our meetings which took place earlier this month in York, plus of course who joined us on the ‘spooky’ Ghost Tour we were treated to and the dinner that followed.

 

It was great to get our membership together after everyone’s summer break and I do hope you enjoyed the sessions from our own Beth Rudolf on all things policy, AML by Tom Lyes of Amalytics, Legal Eye’s Paul Saunders on preparing for an SRA Audit, plus Liz Ramsden and Hannah Page from Knights who gave us real practical, on the ground help with the Building Safety Act.

 

There was plenty there for us all to get our teeth into and the feedback we garnered from Beth’s session in particular will be taken away and utilised to form CA policy on a number of areas, notably the Bank of England’s RTGS survey, the Digital Property Information Protocol, and delays at Land Registry.

 

One point that did strike me, and it is not often said explicitly and therefore seemed worthy of mentioning, was that made by Tom Lyes in his presentation on fraud prevention but specifically on how to stop this criminality, particularly in areas like attempts at money laundering.

 

Tom highlighted just how important the work of conveyancers has been in stopping this, in an area which has previously been targeted consistently because of the potential for large sums of money to be involved.

 

He said that conveyancers have effectively set the standards in this area in recent years, and as a result had effectively stopped lots of these attempts to use property purchases as a means to launder money. So successful have conveyancers been that Tom pointed out many criminals have decided not to attempt anything within the UK any more and have moved to other regions, notably Dubai.

 

As I said above, it’s not often that conveyancers receive plaudits for the work they carry out; indeed, it’s often forgotten and some will still push back against the time of reviewing all aspects of a transaction in order to stop this type of activity, and to stop innocent parties being taken advantage of.

 

Clearly in this area, that work is not just needed but is being carried out ultra-competently and is having the desired impact. It means less crime of this type in our sector and we should acknowledge the work of conveyancing firms who have embraced their role and have set exacting standards in doing so. A big well done to firms on this.

 

Also, on the day of our York meetings we were also able to look a little further ahead to next year’s 2025 Annual Conference & Dinner, and have been able to announce some initial details.

 

Our flagship event for 2025 will take place once again in Manchester at the Hilton Deansgate Hotel on the 30^th January, and will be entitled ‘Past, present and future – where is the conveyancing industry up to and what can we expect in the future?’

 

Headline sponsored by Landmark Information Group, we are going to use the Conference as a half-way point between now and 2030, not least because back in 2020 we identified the start of the next decade as a realistic target for achieving a digital end-to-end conveyancing process.

 

To that end, we think it’s time to assess the progress that has been made towards that data, to check where the sector currently is, what it needs to do over the next five years, and where we are currently heading.

 

As usual, we will have an excellent array of sessions and panels for attendees, and we’ll be announcing further details in due course. What I can tell you is that the morning sessions will focus on the economy and its impact on our sector, and the afternoon will take a deep dive into products such as AI, and what to expect in the future.

 

We can also announce our key-note speaker, who for 2025 will be Behavioural Economist, Roger Martin-Fagg who will provide an opinion on those underlying economic trends and lessons, and the impact on firms and the wider housing market.

 

It might seem some way off, but it’s effectively a little over four months, and registration is open now here, plus there are further details on what you can expect if you attend, including exhibitors, plus of course our not-to-be-missed Annual Dinner which will finish off proceedings on the evening of the 30^th.

 

Last year was a special day and night and we do hope you’ll all be able to join us next year for a repeat performance.

 

Nicky Heathcote is Non-Executive Chair at the Conveyancing Association (CA)