'No shocks': CLC sets out its stall

When I was given the opportunity to interview in person the chief executive and chair of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, one topic stood out that I had to ask about: the niche regulator’s renewed push to persuade conveyancers to leave the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Why should conveyancers switch from the SRA to the CLC?

‘We’re a specialist regulator so we’re aware of the risks and where the pressures are coming,’ says CLC chair Dame Janet Paraskeva.

The CLC currently watches over 221 practices, which includes eight that switched over from the SRA and three from CILEx Regulation. Last October, there were 1,499 licensed conveyancers and probate practitioners on its register. Now, there are 1,721.

Strategy and business planning enables the CLC to say ‘this is what’s coming up on our horizon so these are the things we’re going to want to talk to you about’, says chief executive Sheila Kumar. ‘There should not be any shocks.’

Last autumn the regulator issued an advisory note recommending firms ‘stress test’ their businesses for resilience. Increasing interest rates, falling availability of mortgage products and tightening supply of properties sale would see transaction numbers fall. ‘Against this background, all law firms should consider how they would respond to a significant downturn in the economy,’ the advisory note said.

‘People thought it was odd we were asking in advance that people might want to consider it,’ Kumar says of the advisory note. ‘One of the differences between us as a regulator and others is all we do is think about the property market and conveyancing sector, and probate. If something is coming down the line, why would we not ask about it.’

The CLC describes ‘assisted compliance' as a unique strength of the CLC model but Kumar stresses that the regulator has zero tolerance for non-compliance.

‘There are various routes to get to compliance and that is what every regulator should be working for – a proportionate approach to addressing the risks and getting people to comply,’ Kumar says. Working collaboratively on getting people to comply is efficient, effective and benefits the consumer. ‘One would hope the sharper end of things is only used in a small percentage of cases. That’s what we see. That’s what we would expect to see.’