The first of a new series of discussions on the Today's Conveyancer Podcast, host David Opie is joined by expert legal trainer Ian Quayle of IQ Legal Training, to explore a range of topics around conveyancing. 

"Transaction Tips" will draw on Ian's extensive experience in and around the property sector discussing important topics conveyancers need to be thinking about. 

In this first discussion on scoping the retainer, Ian shares his expertise of what to include, and more importantly, what not to include in client retainers. The retainers establishes our relationship with the client and starts to create and manage expectations.

He also explores best practice around ensuring retainers remain under review; and the firm have evidence on file the client has read and understood it. In the ever-changing world of conveyancing; and with issues like Building Safety Act and the upcoming changes to TA6 Protocol Forms, it's more important than ever to ensure retainers remain as relevant and up to date as possible. 

Ian warns firms against what he describes as "retainer creep"; an issue where a firm ends up doing something as part of the transaction they expressly exclude from the retainer; using the example of a boundary query. In such cases firms must expand the retainer or end up at risk of liability. 

Ian will be back throughout the rest of the year with more Transaction Tips on the Today's Conveyancer Podcast. For information about the training Ian runs please visit www.todaysmedia.co.uk/todays-legal-training.

The Today's Conveyancer podcast can be found on your preferred podcast provider and also at www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk. Subscribe and listen in for all the latest conveyancing industry news and views. 

Thank you to our podcast sponsors PEXA and VacantC Legal Recruitment.

Travis Scholes, Commercial Director at LMS, joins Today's Conveyancer Podcast host David Opie to discuss the National Property Transaction Network (NPTN); an enablement platform where all those involved in the property transaction can interact in a way that creates greater efficiencies in the process.

Discussing the evolution of the concept Travis explains how the last 5 years has seen the level of digitisation within each of the property silos develop astronomically; what's missing is a place where all those different elements of digitisation can work best together and and make the best use of that digital maturity that has taken place. 

We've got to make that burden to change easier, says Travis. We see NPTN as a way to knock down some of the roadblocks by creating a really open system into which anybody can plug; decoupling the LMS products and services from the network so they're not mandated and any one can plug their supply chain into it. 

The more people use a single platform to leverage the efficiencies the more powerful the data becomes, the more efficient the process becomes. We can also reduce the administrative burden by de-duplicating data entry points and creating more transparency

Change will be evolutionary, not revolutionary. The big bang approach where everyone has to stop what they're doing and adopt a completely new way of working is impossible. And we're still going through a process of helping the profession understand what this change looks like. In addition we've got to overcome some of the "technology fatigue" that has crept in; the idea that people become tired of hearing about the next big thing. 

In an entertaining, informative, and typically honest, discussion Travis explains how and why LMS are keen to play their part int he next iteration of the property market. 

The Today's Conveyancer podcast can be found on your preferred podcast provider and also at www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk. Subscribe and listen in for all the latest conveyancing industry news and views. 

Thank you to our podcast sponsors PEXA and VacantC Legal Recruitment.

Rob Houghton, CEO of reallymoving joins the Today's Conveyancer Podcast to discuss what home moving was like before the iPhone. 

reallymoving.com is a comparison site for for home moving services and recently celebrated 25 years in business. 

In a fascinating discussion about the evolution of online marketing, Rob discusses what the world of online was like in 1999 and the evolution of web search in the following years. He explains how the model of bidding for keywords developed, alongside the process of building websites that provided information for consumers.

One of the criticisms directed at comparison sites is they simply encourage the race to the bottom on price; that by providing information driven by price, firms have no choice but to offer lower prices to be competitive. 

It's a fair comment says Rob, but critically he describes reallymoving as a "comparison site", not a "price comparison site." Semantics perhaps but an important distinction he says as while price is important, there are other factors like reviews, location, and information about a firm's approach to client communication (home moving milestone apps etc) that inform a client's decision.

He says after price, reviews is the next most important way people choose their conveyancer, adding most people who convert through the website do not choose the lowest price.

Given the changes the business has been through over the last 25 years, looking ahead for the next 25 years is hugely challenging. No question the continued digitisation of the industry will continue apace say Rob, and as far as lead generation is concerned, there will be a deeper integration between lead generators and firms, and firms and their clients; almost certainly powered by artificial intelligence. 

But Rob concludes on the thought that in 1999 comparison sites were largely an unknown quantity. Fast forward 25 years and they are now commonplace and are  hugely powerful and important to the consumer experience when it comes to travel, leisure, financial services and many other sectors. Law firms take note!  

The Today's Conveyancer podcast can be found on your preferred podcast provider and also at www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk. Subscribe and listen in for all the latest conveyancing industry news and views. 

Thank you to our podcast sponsors PEXA and VacantC Legal Recruitment

Podcast host David Opie in joined by CEO of the charity LawCare, Elizabeth Rimmer, to discuss their latest "Life in the Law" surveys which are now open for completion until Friday 21st March. 

LawCare supports and promotes mental health and wellbeing across the legal services sector. They have 2 main focuses. Their first is in providing direct support on and offline for those who wish to reach out. Their second focus is on providing wider education and advocacy of mental health planning and promotion across the law. Importantly, says Elizabeth, LawCare help organisations understand how they can better support their people through identifying risk factors in the work place that undermine people's mental health

The survey last ran in 2020 with the results published in 2021 and found 69% of respondents said that had experienced poor mental health. Addressing some of the reasons why the survey found 1 in 5 respondents had experienced bullying and workplace harassment; and less than half of respondents with line management responsibilities had any formal training. 

In 2025 there are 2 surveys to complete; one for individuals and one for organisations. More information about how to complete the surveys is on the LawCare website (Life in the Law) and below.

The surveys are asking questions about wellbeing, hours people work, psychological safety, burnout, management and support, and bullying and harassment. 

For organisations, the survey is looking into whats steps are organisations taking to address the factors of poor mental health. Good mental health is a strategic investment, says Elizabeth. Staff who have positive mental health are going to be more effective, more productive, more likely to stay in the organisations. 

The objective of the surveys is to help produce evidence based best practice for firms to practically implement into their organisations. This needs to be done properly, strategically, and you need to give people capacity to deliver it concludes Elizabeth. 

Complete the surveys via the links below:

• Life in the Law 2025 (Individuals)
• Life in the Law 2025 (Organisations)

The Today's Conveyancer podcast can be found on your preferred podcast provider and also at www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk. Subscribe and listen in for all the latest conveyancing industry news and views. 

Thank you to our podcast sponsors PEXA and VacantC Legal Recruitment

The Today's Conveyancer podcast welcomes Group Chief Commercial Officer at First4Lawyers, Nick Delaney, to discuss their first foray in conveyancing services. 

The Group, best known for its FCA-regulated claims management company and SRA-regulated volume Road Traffic Accident work, has been going for 16 years and has launched F4LPlus; a comparison and lead generation service for consumers seeking conveyancing services. 

Throughout the discussion Nick explains how the project has developed over the past 18 months in an effort to diversify the business; and why conveyancing, rather than other consumer legal services such as wills, probate, employment and family services, has been the testing ground. 

Nick says the service is about helping consumers make a choice about who they want to use; but recognises the challenge services like F4LPlus and other comparison tools have in differentiating their panel firms. 

Geography, consumer reviews and carefully curated profiles are among the selection criteria presented to enquirers in an effort to try and give the consumer more than the price to look at. 

If there are lessons to be learnt from the extensive experience in high volume personal injury and clinical negligence matters First4Lawyers are best known for, it is recognising the importance of a sales process for the leads generated. Successful firms are the ones who have people at the front end helping clients, says Nick. The speed at which consumers get a response plays a key role in their decision-making process. 

And above all "firms who are good at picking up the phone and speaking to the consumer get more work" - Nick is unequivocal about this. You can automate much of the enquiry management process but at some point you need to pick up the phone and speak to people, he adds. 

Tackling criticism often leveled at comparison sites around the quality of leads, F4LPlus say they have firms converting 20%+ of their leads such are the verification stages the software requires, including creating an account, going through an initial fact fine, including timescales and budget, and working with firms to create an efficient follow up process. 

Conveyancing is the testing ground for the new service, with Nick hopeful of expanding into other areas of law in the future. 

The Today's Conveyancer podcast can be found on your preferred podcast provider and also at www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk. Subscribe and listen in for all the latest conveyancing industry news and views. 

Thank you to our podcast sponsors PEXA and VacantC Legal Recruitment

The Today's Conveyancer Podcast welcomes back Dan Warburton, a law firm consultant and trainer who specialises in helping individuals delegate work more effectively; in the process junior staff are elevated, the individual has a happier work/life balance, and ultimately the firm can be more profitable. 

It's a soapbox Dan has jumped on before having appeared previously on the podcast to discuss “the skill of profitable delegation;” creating leaders who can deliver high levels of performance across their team. Few partners achieve what Dan describes as a “transition out of being a technician in the business to being a business owner"; it should be their objective to remove themselves from a position where the structure and success of the organisation relies on them.

This discussion centres on the launch of Dan's book "Delegate Now to Supercharge Your Profits" in which he outlines the secrets to his methodology;

• including the key differences between "delegation" and "profitable delegation" - "It’s easy to delegate work away ineffectively... It’s a very different skill to delegate work away and have it handled to a high standard whilst gaining a great reputation and making a firm reliably profitable.")
• Proactive and reactive management - "I’ve come to see that there really is no other way than leading regular one-on-one calls to lead and manage team members effectively."
• Leading teams in a way that makes them loyal to you

Throughout the podcast Dan discusses tips and tactics for how to work with individuals in the business to help them become more efficient, effective and confident members of the team which in turn enables leaders to lead, rather than remaining forever in the The Law Technician’s Valley of Doom - It’s where partners are all burned out from working long hours and cannot see how to increase their firms’ profits without working even longer hours.

They cannot stop working, and they cannot take breaks to recharge their batteries very often. They take holidays infrequently because their firms rely on them so much to keep operating.

The Today's Conveyancer podcast can be found on your preferred podcast provider and also at www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk. Subscribe and listen in for all the latest conveyancing industry news and views.

Thank you to our podcast sponsors PEXA and VacantC Legal Recruitment.

A new consumer awareness website has been launched to help conveyancers and home movers understand the risks associated with coastal erosion. CoastClear is a partnership launched by Groundsure with Chief Customer Officer David Kempster joining the latest Today's Conveyancer podcast to explain more about the objectives behind the initiative.

There are c.10,000 homes that are now at serious, imminent risk of falling off a cliff; and by 2050 that will quadruple to 40,000. There is, says David, a degree of rose tinted spectacles when it comes to purchasing property near the coast. People buy with their heart, not their head, and this is an effort to raise consumer awareness of the associated risks.

Coastal erosion creates a lending risk as the coastline moves steadily closer to homes nearby, particularly in areas like Norfolk and Suffolk. Coupled with the general trend toward longer mortgages, properties which may at one time have been considered fine to lend on, become unmortgageable. Unlike flood, which can be cleared and cleaned, coastal erosion causes a total loss of asset for both the bank and homeowners, and they simply won't lend.

In a similar vein, when it comes to remortgaging, lending decisions evolve during the course of property ownership as the sea edges closer to the property.

While the website (www.coastclear.co.uk) is aimed at consumers, the partnership is part of the wider climate considerations that home movers, and conveyancers now undertake. We're already reporting on ground stability and subsidence says David, this is one element to flag which affected home movers. It is also part of the Law Society's climate guidance which is due to be ratified in the coming months.

Home movers increasingly want and need this information and so as professionals should we be pointing them at resources that can help. Conveyancers are encouraged to engage with it and make sure they're signposting home movers to the postcode checker on the website which will provide an indicating of whether the property is at risk.

The Today's Conveyancer podcast can be found on your preferred podcast provider and also at www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk. Subscribe and listen in for all the latest conveyancing industry news and views.

Thank you to our podcast sponsors PEXA and VacantC Legal Recruitment.

How do law firms choose the right technology? Its a conundrum many law firms face and with so much technology available to them, how can they be sure they're selecting the right option for them? 

Chris Williams of Novus Strategy & Consulting joins the Today's Conveyancer podcast to share his thoughts and insight on the topic; borne out of his experience working across the property transaction, and notably with lenders in recent years. 

In simple terms, he says firms should focus on solutions which align with their strategy, client needs, and operational goals. And when outlining what strategy firm's might adopt, Chris adds strategy is "where you play and how you win."

But in the current technology climate, where there seems to be rapid change, and moving goalposts if you take the example of settlement where the future remains uncertain; how do firms know if they're "winning"? And how can they prepare for something that may or may not happen? 

There is lots of time to prepare, says Chris. The market does not move quickly and we can see what is coming down the track. The key is to work with vendors and partners who can provide interoperability and scalability for long term success

Alongside settlement, which is one discussion point to consider, Chris adds there is an evolution of the mortgage process coming; which in turn is going to drive some of the work around data standardisation and horizontal data integration; the idea that in each of the existing verticals (lending, brokering, estate agency and conveyancing) there is significant progress on digitisation and the next step is to bring that all together and create greater connectivity throughout the course of the transaction. 

Drawing on the experience of the retail sector, which went through its own digital (r)evolution, in Chris's view the individual sections of the market are reaching digital maturity to enable the connectivity currently missing to develop and sees the home moving process could look very different in just a few years' time.

The Today's Conveyancer podcast can be found on your preferred podcast provider and also at www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk. Subscribe and listen in for all the latest conveyancing industry news and views.

Thank you to our podcast sponsors PEXA and VacantC Legal Recruitment.

In the second episode of the new series of the Today's Conveyancer podcast former Google-exec turned prop-tech entrepreneur Gemma Young discusses her journey on helping improve the home moving process.

In a wide ranging discussion Gemma and Today's Conveyancer podcast host David Opie explore the work being done to digitise the relationships between estate agents and conveyancers, and the conveyancing process. In her words Gemma is witnessing what she considers to be a shift in mindset around organisations prepared to collaborate more now, than ever before.

And if there is a takeaway from the discussion it is for professionals to invest time in 2025 to find out what is happening from a technology and process point of view, and who is leading that charge.

How do we move from the current situation where 1 in 3 property transactions fall through, to creating greater certainty in the process; and by extension reinvesting billion of pounds back in to the UK economy?

There is no silver bullet and Gemma discusses the work being done on to connect so much that is being in silos; improving the quality of data through the Property Data Trust Framework (PDTF) and enabling that to be shared throughout the transaction rather than the extensive duplication in the current process; and educating professionals and consumers on what that change looks like.

There's an opportunity to fundamentally make a change in how we transact property says Gemma, and if I was speaking to conveyancers I would say lean in, learn, read, and find out more about what's happening in the space.

The Today's Conveyancer podcast can be found on your preferred podcast provider and also at www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk. Subscribe and listen in for all the latest conveyancing industry news and views.

Thank you to our podcast sponsors PEXA and VacantC Legal Recruitment.

Ben Robinson and Rob Gurney of Landmark join host David Opie on the first Today's Conveyancer Podcast of 2025 to discuss the recently published Property Trends Report covering the final quarter of 2024. 

A regular feature of the podcast, the report looks data from within the Landmark group around property listings, sold-subject-to-contract numbers, search order volumes and completions; benchmarking the numbers against 2019 - the last year the property market might be considered to have been normal before the turmoil of COVID-19 and the ensuing turbulence. 

Reviewing the year's numbers there is a case to consider the property market has settled into a new normal ahead of 2025, with much of the data tracking at around two-thirds 2019 volumes. 

"6 years is a long time ago" says Ben Robinson, "if we think back we had the 2006 'before normal,' and we got to 2010-11 before people realised that wasn't the normal anymore. It will be interesting to see where that new normal levels off."

The latest report reveals

• Listing volumes were up 8% in Q4 ‘24 vs Q4 ‘19. 
• Sold subject to contract (SSTC) volumes in Q4 ‘24 were down 33% when compared to Q4 ‘19 volumes.
• Completions have fallen by 37% in Q4 ’24 vs Q4 ‘19.
• Search order volumes in Q4 2024 were down 18% vs Q4 2019 levels, albeit December 2019 volumes were also comparatively low.  

But with the market artificially stimulated by the stamp duty relief deadline for first time buyers coming in March what does the rest of 2025 hold for the property market? Listen in to hear Ben and Rob's thoughts and predictions.

The Today's Conveyancer podcast can be found on your preferred podcast provider and also at www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk. Subscribe and listen in for all the latest conveyancing industry news and views.

Thank you to our podcast sponsors PEXA and VacantC Legal Recruitment.