“Don’t slack with post-completion work just because you’ve been paid,” CLC warns conveyancers
The term ‘post-completion’ can encourage conveyancers to see applications to HM Land Registry (HMLR) as an afterthought, especially as they are done after collecting the fee, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has warned.
Its 2025 Risk Agenda also underlines throughout the fundamental importance of ethics and ethical conduct in light of profession-wide concerns as well as the CLC introducing its new Code of Conduct at the start of the year.
On HMLR applications, the regulator stresses that taking the fee and not completing the work is a breach of its Accounts Code and demonstrates a lack of integrity.
“The term ‘post-completion’ can feed into the notion that the applications to HMLR and, where needed, elsewhere (such as Companies House) are an afterthought, especially as they are done after collecting the fee,” it says.
“The reality is that clients have been charged for this work and there is an obligation to perform it promptly and with diligence.”
Failing to respond properly to HMLR requisitions can lead to registrations being cancelled, a problem that may only manifest itself many years later when the owner looks to sell. The CLC says one firm was removed from a leading lender’s panel last year because it failed to improve its performance around requisitions, despite being given several opportunities.
“This can be a particular problem at firms that have dedicated ‘post-completion teams’ and where matters can fall through the cracks in the hand-off from the fee-earner,” it adds, noting that HMLR was now sharing requisitions data not only with practices but with regulators.
Last year’s Risk Agenda highlighted the number of complaints the CLC received about practices breaching undertakings in relation to HMLR applications. It recently published a new advisory note on the issue and says this year: “While we understand that sometimes an individual breach is due to the action/inaction of a third party – such as a lender or management company – the CLC is increasing its activity on this issue and tracking practices where we are seeing repeated or systemic breaches.
“Problems can emerge from practices not having proper processes in place post-completion or even to provide undertakings in the first place.”
Among other issues raised by the Risk Agenda are a rise in the number of CLC practices both prepared to act where cryptocurrencies are part of a transaction – raising significant anti-money laundering (AML) issues – and acting where funding originated in China, given the very strict controls the Chinese government maintains on citizens transferring funds for personal purposes out of the country.
The surge in properties being sold at auction represents another AML “cause for concern”, the CLC says. This can potentially expose CLC practices to the risk of committing a money laundering offence, particularly where there are known or suspected concerns about the extent and/or quality of due diligence. It may also be unethical to proceed with a transaction in such circumstances.
CLC chair Dame Janet Paraskeva says:
“The CLC has long been and remains on the front foot in ensuring that the sector we regulate is held to account to the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct so fundamental to maintaining public trust and confidence in the legal profession.
“So I am very proud to say that, against a backdrop of media reports which underscore the importance of maintaining high standards of ethical conduct in the legal profession, the CLC has once more not shied away from reforms which, in the interests of consumers, set more exacting requirements when it comes to the professional conduct of the conveyancers and probate lawyers we regulate.
“The Risk Agenda is the result of our detailed insight and monitoring, highlighting how the principal risks in the sector can be mitigated through proactive best practices as well as the areas of particular focus for the CLC. I urge those we regulate – and indeed others in the property world – to read it closely.”
Read the 2025 Risk Agenda in full here.
