Search firm suspended from codes board

The Property Codes Compliance Board has suspended one of its members.

London-based Legal & More is said to have failed to meet the required standards set out by the Code and has been removed from the PCCB register with immediate effect.

The Search Code is a voluntary initiative for firms which carry out local authority and other property searches in the conveyancing process.

The scheme sets out to provide a mark of quality, allowing all those that rely on the information provided in property search reports to be confident in both the service and the information they receive from those who sign up to the code.

Legal & More was been found to be in breach of the standards set out by the code. The company failed to provide the documentation required by the PCCB as part of a planned compliance inspection, and as a result, the PCCB imposed an immediate suspension.  

As no appeal against the decision was received, the company’s details have been removed from the PCCB register.

Earlier this week, the Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO), which owns and maintains the code, and the PCCB, which monitors and enforces it, announced a series of changes to the search code and the way in which it is enforced within the UK.

These changes are designed to provide enhanced protection for both consumers and property professionals, said the organisations.

Ironically, the changes were introduced after the Localism Act, passed on November 17, formally did away with HIPs.

It means that standards for searches no longer exist on the statute book.

https://www.copso.org.uk