Council for Licensed Conveyancers plans 'significant' fee cuts

The CLC says it has already reduced annual practice fee rates by more than a quarter since 2015 but is considering reducing annual licence fee rates by a further 20% and contributions to the Compensation Fund by up to 60%.

The individual licence fee charged to CLC lawyers providing conveyancing and/or probate services will remain unchanged at £400.

The Council of the CLC has also agreed to stop charging conveyancing and probate technicians a £75 registration fee. This is not subject to consultation and takes immediate effect.

The CLC says it can safely reduce costs due to a low number of failures, effective cost management and strong business performances from CLC-regulated firms.

As a result of this, the CLC says reserves are "now at a level that should be reduced closer to the minimum level set by the Council".

The consultation closes on the 21st of June and the changes will take effect, subject to approval, from the new licensing year, which starts on the 1st of November

CLC's chief executive, Sheila Kumar, said: “Good regulation does not have to come with an onerous price tag. Our focus is on prevention, rather than what can often be a very expensive cure, and the community we regulate has responded positively, saying that they value this approach.

“The latest proposed reduction in practising fees continues our long-term commitment to delivering effective regulation while reducing costs to individual firms and is in line with our ambition to be the regulator of choice in our specialist areas.

“It is a testament to the effectiveness of our specialist and proactive regulatory approach that we are able to make a bigger step than in previous years towards this goal, despite the challenges in the housing and thus also in the conveyancing market. We will only make reductions that we are confident are sustainable over the long term as a lack of consistency in fee rates would itself be damaging to the market.”