The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) is the regulator of specialist property and probate lawyers.
Our mission is to deliver effective regulation of specialist property and probate lawyers that protects consumers and fosters competition and innovation in the provision of legal services.
We do so by setting entry standards and regulating providers to deliver high quality, accessible legal services. We work hard to ensure that our tailored approach to regulation fosters innovation in the delivery of legal services.
The CLC’s current strategic objectives are three-fold:
- Empowering consumers to make informed choices of conveyancing and probate lawyers
- Adapting regulation to the changing market
- Becoming the regulator of choice in our specialist areas
Empowering consumers
One of the main ways the CLC empowers consumers is by developing consumer understanding of conveyancing as well as helping consumers protect themselves from risks such as fraud and cybercrime. This is achieved through our website, social media channels and PR. Using web content supported by social media and regular articles in What Mortgage magazine, we have supported better understanding of the terms that all professionals involved in the home buying process use frequently that may not be understood by the consumer, promoted our guide to choosing a conveyancer and set out the risks of fraud and how users of legal services can protect themselves.
We also have a Customer Charter to:
- Enhance our public legal education objectives by reinforcing the benefits to the public of using a regulated legal service provider
- Strengthen understanding for the public of the protection they receive from using a CLC-regulated practice
- Emphasise the specialist nature of CLC regulation and CLC-regulated practices, our commitment to transparency and the protections available to consumers
The Charter creates an opportunity for regulated practices to attract and reassure consumers, while they are still choosing their conveyancer, about what to expect from using a CLC-licensed practice.
It is also a way of demonstrating that the specialist property lawyers at the CLC Practice are bound by a Code of Conduct which sets out the regulatory responsibilities of all practices (and individuals) regulated by the CLC.
Adapting regulation
Our aim is to anticipate, prepare for and respond to.
- movements in the property market,
- changes in the way legal services are delivered, and
- evolution in the profile of risks to clients.
This work is vital to our mission to protect consumers and our commitment to support thriving and innovative businesses.
The CLC plays very active roles in the Land Registry’s Advisory Council and Industry Forum as well as the Home Buying and Selling Group that brings together representatives of all the key groups in the property transfer process.
We gather intelligence and insight from a range of sources, including our inspections of firms, a mandatory Annual Regulatory Return that covers the full range of our regulated entities’ activity and compulsory Accountants Reports, informal visits to firms and discussions with their suppliers, lenders, and others in the property market, running our own and attending others’ conferences, and research we undertake ourselves or in collaboration with others.
Regulator of choice
Unlike the other legal regulators, the CLC has only ever had an exclusively regulatory function. The CLC’s Code of Conduct is principles based and outcomes focused. We do not simply police the community that we regulate, we support them in achieving compliance: we want them to thrive.
Our regulatory approach is designed to support client-focused and innovative conveyancing and probate lawyers. We proceed on the basis that prevention is better than cure and use a wide range of approaches and tools to support CLC Practices, ensure compliance and take corrective or disciplinary action where it is necessary.
Throughout the year, we continued to assess applications from existing and new practices to enter CLC regulation.
We undertake a number of activities to support our regulated community and the wider conveyancing market.
Annually we produce the CLC Risk Agenda, highlighting the biggest risks facing practices each year, along with advice on how to manage such risks.
Our Conveyancing 2030 whitepaper has set the agenda for our firms in planning for the future, as does our annual conference and roundtables.
CLC’s work is overseen by the Legal Services Board.
For further information, please visit: https://www.clc-uk.org/
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