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TM Group has been declared winner of the coveted 'Risk Management Software of the Year' accolade at the FSTech Awards 2014.

The prestigious awards ceremony, held this year at the London Lancaster Hotel on 27th March, recognises excellence and innovation in the field of information technology within the UK and EMEA financial services sector. Winning entries come from financial services institutions and technology suppliers who lead the way in such areas as social media, customer service, compliance, mobile, online, systems integration, outsourcing and data governance.

A new whitepaper report on Mortgage Fraud has revealed that the majority of lenders surveyed consider 'solicitor negligence' to be the biggest fraud risk to their business.

The survey of more than 28 mortgage lenders shows that more than a third of the lenders fear 'solicitor negligence' but this can manifest in various forms and have serious consequences for the solicitor as well as the lender.

In a recent survey, mortgage lenders identified 'solicitor negligence' as the greatest risk to their businesses.

Mortgage fraud is a threat that is growing each year; in its 2013 Annual Fraud Indicator report, the National Fraud Authority estimated the annual loss attributed to mortgage fraud to be £1bn. Meanwhile, the SRA received 549 reports of bogus law firms in 2013, a 57 percent increase on the number from 2012.

Convey100 measures the influence that property solicitors have on social media platforms such as Twitter. Image © Duncan Hull (2013)

Conveyancers who've always wanted to see how they measure up against other firms can now compete on social media influence with Convey100.

Land Registry Offices, Croydon - Image © Clare Forster

March 9th 2014 saw the closure of the consultation on the Land Registry’s proposal to be granted wider powers and become the sole registering authority for Local Land Charges and a provider of Local Land Charge searches.

It has been seen as a controversial proposal throughout the conveyancing profession with a mix of governing bodies and practitioners having been to oppose it and expose the flaws in the justification.

Not all contaminated sites will be this easy to spot. Image © John Durrant

Contamination of commercial properties is not always visible to the naked eye and, quite often, the problems are hidden underground.  Recently, the purchase of a town-centre retail property based on brownfield land, seemingly in excellent condition, was not as straightforward as it first appeared.

The property was built on the site of buried gas works that, it emerged, were heavily contaminated and unless you were to conduct an environmental search you would fail to realise the danger until, inevitably, toxins had begun seeping into the nearby river.

Image above: Three homes had to be evacuated after a 25ft-wide (7.5m) sinkhole opened in a street in North Yorkshire. (Courtesy of BBC News)

Across the country, sinkholes have been swallowing up earth at 4 to 5 times their usual rate but do you know why they occur or whether your client is at risk of them?

You might imagine that this uncharacteristic rise in the emergence of sinkholes has been caused by the recent inclement weather that has swept the UK but, as Dr Vanessa Banks asserts, this is only part of the problem. Speaking to BBC news, Dr Banks said “Sinkholes have not been caused by the weather; they’ve been triggered by the weather.”

Conveyancing is becoming marginalised by all parties within the property transaction, some solicitors believe. With many bulk conveyancing firms emerging in recent times, there is a concern that the profession is increasingly commoditised by those who can provide quick transactions at comparatively low prices.

Moreover, residential conveyancing attracts around 45% of all PII negligence claims and more than half of these claims are driven by the lender, whose ever-changing requirements ensure that adhering to the CML handbook remains a thorny task.

Yesterday saw the first live CPD event of our educational programme, which was hosted by TM Group and Lockton Companies at Clifton Pavilion - a wonderful Victorian building that adjoins Bristol Zoo.

Property Law; A Risky Business was a complimentary CPD event designed to ruminate upon the forces at work in conveyancing that pose the biggest risks to your firm.

Our selection of expert speakers also offered advice on how to prevent and deal with those risks. The day was a complete success and indeed, some interesting early feedback from one of the delegates confirmed that the session had been "scarily useful!"

Flooding is the biggest natural threat that the UK faces and, in England alone, more than 5 million properties are at risk, equivalent to nearly 1 in 6.

However, it is just not just the risk of coastal or river flooding that poses a threat to properties in the UK, there are types of flooding that many property owners are simply not aware of, amongst which is Groundwater flooding.