Law Society outlines changes to the Conveyancing Quality Scheme
The recent Geodesys CPD event saw Eleanor O’Reilly-Joe, Head of Accreditation at the Law Society and Peter Rodd, CQS Chief Assessor, bring the packed room up-to-speed on recent changes to the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS).
What’s new with the CQS?
First launched in January 2011, the Law Society scheme offers a recognisable standard of excellence in the provision of residential conveyancing services.
In February 2019, the CQS Core Practice Management Standards were updated and expanded. All firms were required to update and embed the requirements by 1 May 2019.
Since the introduction of these changes, the Law Society has increased the level of support it has in place to drive continuous improvement. From November 2019 to January 2020 it carried out an assessment pilot to monitor compliance amongst members and provide feedback.
What did the pilot reveal?
The pilot included both desk-based assessment, focussing on typically high areas of risk such as file reviews, SDLT and leasehold conflict, and on-site visits, which also included the assessment of policies and procedures. Both types of assessment were designed to audit the law firm against the updated Core Practice Management Standards.
The assessments identified non-compliant aspects across all Core Practice Management Standards.
The solution: resolving non-compliance
If a conveyancing practice is found to be non-compliant, it receives a letter from the Law Society laying out any breaches and suggesting a corrective course of action. They are then given a fixed period of time to correct infractions (21 days for minor breaches and three months for major breaches,) after which they are obligated to provide evidence of the corrective action they have taken.
The assessor’s view
Peter Rodd stressed that risks in conveyancing had increased enormously in recent years and those involved in conveyancing could not afford to be complacent when it came to make the necessary changes to their processes. He urged firms to be particularly vigilant when it came to the following areas of risk:
- Fraud: Peter advised that all conveyancing teams should have a list of red flags that could be indicators of fraud. For example, is it reasonable that the buyer could have saved a significant amount of money? There are various clues which should prompt a request to the seller’s solicitor to share due diligence.
- SDLT: Every transaction should have its SDLT calculation double-checked to make sure it is based on the right information. SDLT threatens to become the next PPI scandal as unscrupulous companies encourage dissatisfied clients to put in a claim.
- Client care: Client expectations are usually very different to the reality so it’s important to be as upfront as possible as to how long the transaction is going to take. To avoid buyers feeling that nothing is happening, conveyancers should agree levels of communication at the outset.
Conveyancing: change is a constant
Peter also stressed that change would continue to be a constant theme in conveyancing so those involved in property transactions should keep an eye on the Law Society’s website for details of practice notes. Further changes to CQS will be announced in 2020 and the Law Society will be offering a number of briefing sessions to all those involved in conveyancing compliance.
Over the last year Geodesys has been working with the Law Society to promote the CQS in order to help our clients. We have also introduced the Geodesys Compliance Service which can help conveyancing teams ensure they are complying to the updated CQS Core Practice Management Standards. Please contact kay.toon@geodesys.com for further details of our bespoke service.