Legal
Crime Agency freezes accounts of student who paid £390k up-front to rent a Knightsbridge penthouse
Unexplained Wealth Order looms for 22-year-old who paid £1,000-a-day for student digs on Cadogan Square.
Hardwicke makes a ‘significant addition’ to its property law team
Planning barrister Martha Grekos joins Hardwicke Chambers’ property team.
Government teams up with property & finance industries to tackle fraud
NAEA Propertymark joins the Government's new Economic Crime Strategic Board
Controversial Court of Appeal ruling could have serious implications for leasehold flat owners
Landmark judgment handed down in Julia Duval v 11-13 Randolph Crescent Ltd;
Tenant sues letting agent & landlord over noisy neighbours
Tenant says he should have been told about "excessive noise" from neighbours in a Notting Hill flat
‘A big opportunity for switched-on firms’: New transparency rules come in for conveyancers
Firms now have to clearly display prices and service information in a move designed to encourage more shopping around;
Conveyancers report a jump in the volume & variety of fraud attempts
Over 20% of conveyancing firms have been targeted by fraudsters in the last year, reports the CLC
New construction partner for Fladgate
Olivia Bateman joins rapidly expanding West End law firm with specialisms in real estate and private wealth
HMRC fines for money laundering ‘more than double in a year’
The average fine for money laundering breaches is now £3,448 - seven times higher than it was two year ago.
Change at the top for Maurice Turnor Gardner
Top boutique private wealth law firm names Emma-Jane Weider as Managing Partner
Berkeley bosses ‘were accused of engaging in years of bribery with a partner at a major estate agent’
The Guardian reports that old court documents allege that Berkeley's chief "consistently engaged in bribing one of the partners in a major estate agency"
Government lays out plans for a new specialist ‘Housing Court’
Call for Evidence opens on proposals to give landlords and tenants "faster and more effective justice in the event of property disputes"