The Government have passed amendments to the Deregulation Bill that states probate practitioners can now be licenced by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) — without requiring to qualify as a conveyancer.
Having completed the Third Reading stage at the House of Lords, the bill then successfully received Royal Assent on 26th March 2015.
Now titled as the Deregulation Act 2015, the new laws have been formulated to minimise impracticality of legislation and regulatory burdens across many areas of business.
Within the new Act, s.86 and 87 amend the Administration of Justice Act 1985 to allow the CLC to grant licenses for probate activities. This means there will be separate licenses for those who choose to qualify as a licenced conveyancer and another for probate practitioners.
The CLC have stated they will publish details on how to apply for the individual licenses later this year.
Angela Bradley, Chair of the CLC has said their objectives are to drive competition and innovation within the sector through advocating more defined specialisms within property law services. Bradley suggests this will maintain high standards within service offerings and will provide the increasingly demanding consumer with the protection and service provision they are requiring.
Do you agree that conveyancing and probate should be mutually exclusive specialisms within property law? Will this new Act affect your law firm and will you now value the new individual licenses over multiple specialisms?
Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
