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Rob Hailstone
Rob Hailstone
Founder of the Bold Legal Group
6752  Profile Views

About Me

Ex-conveyancer and Founder of the Bold Legal Group.

my expertise in the industry

Rob's Recent Activity

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 21 February 2024 08:52 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 01 December 2023 07:18 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 14 August 2023 06:50 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 26 June 2023 08:48 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 21 February 2023 06:54 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 01 February 2023 10:26 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 24 January 2023 09:35 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 24 January 2023 06:53 AM

Rob Hailstone
“Don't patronise me Rob, you've done it for years. Not unless you want me to post up your company accounts versus mine.” I have never patronised you Matt, you always read into everything what you want to read. However, have you completely lost the plot? Why are you banging on about company accounts? Is this now **** swinging thing with you. I really don’t care what you earn, or what you are worth. You are also stooping a bit low now: “Although I'm sure Hailstone will suggest this couple in their eighties are being useless tools themselves and should have been primed and ready.” I have acted for thousands of clients and have always gone the extra mile for them, and would never categorise any of them, or indeed anyone, as “useless tools”. What an unpleasant phrase. I thought my comment earlier was entirely fair and was not apportioning (or ruling out) any blame, because I don’t know the full story. “I'm not saying the conveyancer wasn't to blame either partly or entirely, but it looks like the charge was registered against the seller's property, and therefore, she should have also been aware of its existence.” Conveyancing now is far more challenging than it was 15 or 20 years ago, and it becomes more challenging by the day. Feel free to register for our online forum and see the number of highly complicated questions that are posted most days. Don’t you ever have any good conveyancer stories to tell because LinkedIn etc is full of them and flowers, thank you cards, chocolates and wine are in abundance. And if you don’t have any positive stories one has to ask why? I’m going to take a breather now, as I see round two coming on next week, if the editor of EAT decides to publish some more of my thoughts. I don’t want a round two, I would much prefer a sensible discussion. I live in hope. Propert Estate Agent, our industry/profession is not regulated by its own members. what an odd comment to make.

From: Rob Hailstone 13 January 2023 14:01 PM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 10 January 2023 09:59 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 13 September 2022 06:26 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 10 May 2022 07:05 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 31 December 2021 06:52 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 29 December 2021 11:51 AM

Rob Hailstone
Simplify Group – Update 17 December, 2021 The CLC has been in constant touch with managers at Simplify since the incident was first reported. The regulated law firms within the Simplify group that were involved in the incident were Premier Property Lawyers, DC Law and JS Law. Our priorities have been to ensure the security of client monies, the progression of transactions as soon as that was safely possible, and that clients should be able to move their matter to another conveyancer if that was what they felt most appropriate for them. In addition to daily contact by email and phone we have had two in-depth face to face meetings on site and this week another comprehensive online meeting to review progress in all areas. We continue to monitor very closely adherence to the CLC’s regulatory requirements in the interest of client protection. Simplify rightly took a cautious approach to the restoration of systems and developed different processes to enable transactions to progress. The group continues to make progress and this is reflected in the steep fall we have seen in the number of contacts from Simplify’s clients to the CLC from a peak in the second week after the incident. As always, the CLC is responding to all contacts and complaints it receives. Service complaints, including issues of delay, should be addressed first by the practice and referred to the Legal Ombudsman if the complainant is not satisfied. Simplify has increased their complaints handling resource to ensure that they remain compliant with the CLC’s regulatory requirements.

From: Rob Hailstone 20 December 2021 17:12 PM

Rob Hailstone
I have received some thoughts from two experts in the field: “They will no doubt have a Cyber policy which is the correct policy in this instance, however a wise broker would also notify the PI insurers on a “just in case“ basis . The Cyber policy would have provided (in no particular order): IT experts to start solving the problem caused by any third party attempts to sabotage a Firm’s systems. These are specialist technicians who are thoroughly up to date on the latest threats and “bugs“ in a way that the in-house IT department or usual suppliers will not be PR advisers to handle the messaging to Clients and the wider outside world Specialist Lawyers to tackle any legal angles including regulatory issues” “Without knowing exactly all of the specifics, what has been reported suggests that they may have been subjected to a significant cyber-attack that has severely disrupted their services. Hopefully, they have not also created any financial loses. For me this serves as a perfect reminder for all practices to do two things: 1. Continuously review and invest in upgrading IT security: Prevention is better than cure. 2. Invest in a comprehensive cyber policy annually: Risk mitigation is absolutely crucial, but No system is impenetrable, the pentagon has been hacked previously which demonstrates this. Having a comprehensive cyber policy will save valuable time, as you will have access to the numerous experts, IT and otherwise to identify how the criminals have got in, protecting your clients from losses, restore your systems to safe working order whilst ensuring that you are complying with your regulatory responsibilities ICO and SRA. It will also help preserve reputations. Sadly, this problem is not going away and I suspect that all law firms will be very attractive targets for the Criminals.”

From: Rob Hailstone 12 November 2021 09:15 AM

Rob Hailstone
From the Council of Licensed Conveyancers Simplify Group (including Premier Property Lawyers) system outages 10 November, 2021 We are advised by the Simplify Group that following preliminary investigation of systems outages, it is now aware that certain parts of its business (including Premier Property Lawyers), have been affected by a security incident involving some IT systems. The Simplify Group responded immediately upon discovery of the incident by engaging a number of third-party cyber specialists to fully restore systems, find ways to support clients’ property transactions and undertake a thorough investigation to gain a fuller understanding of the incident. The Simplify Group have therefore taken proactive steps to contain the incident, including by taking a number of their systems offline as a precautionary measure. We understand the Simplify Group has also taken steps to report the incident to relevant authorities and to contact its clients and partners. The current issues relate to the temporary inability to access some of the IT systems, which has regrettably prevented the completion of some transactions. The Simplify Group are working hard to find further solutions and provide all the support it can to its clients and partners at this difficult time. Whist the recovery effort is underway, any clients who are unable to contact their conveyancer via the usual channels may wish to complete a web contact form via THIS LINK which will allow Simplify to make direct contact.

From: Rob Hailstone 10 November 2021 08:45 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 22 July 2021 12:51 PM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 22 July 2021 08:30 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 02 July 2021 11:43 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 24 May 2021 07:12 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 13 April 2021 09:34 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 13 February 2021 07:17 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 17 January 2021 10:28 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 31 December 2020 06:44 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 09 November 2020 13:25 PM

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From: Rob Hailstone 06 October 2020 08:56 AM

Rob Hailstone
“Solicitors over their capacity” rings true. One solicitor I spoke to last week said she had put her fees up by 25%, increased her hours as much as possible, and was still having to turn away work to ensure she could cope. It would appear that most solicitor firms have taken their employees off of furlough. Despite this, capacity levels are at breaking point. There just aren’t enough conveyancers or conveyancing solicitors around to meet demand, and finding and training new ones is timely and costly. Every time the conveyancer receives an email or call that requires a response, they take themselves away from the work they need to concentrate on. At the moment, if an email isn’t replied to very quickly it then prompts a call, making a bad situation even worse. If I had a builder working in my house and I kept interrupting them, the work would not get done anywhere near as quickly as it should do and my bill would go up. A lose lose situation. Controversial suggestion, that I think would help, don’t chase the conveyancer unless you really need to otherwise the vicious circle of delay will continue to get worse. If you do have to chase, give them a reasonable time to respond. If you have a close working relation ship with the conveyancer, try to agree with them the best day/time to obtain the information and updates you need. Many years ago, I received three calls in a row, within a ten-minute period (from client, broker and then agent), asking why I hadn’t exchanged 10 minutes earlier. You can guess my response.

From: Rob Hailstone 21 September 2020 06:41 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 09 July 2020 11:13 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 22 June 2020 08:21 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 21 April 2020 07:59 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 09 February 2020 06:28 AM

Rob Hailstone
Can't really disagree with Phil. But of course consumers dont really understand any aspects of the conveyancing process. At the risk of public ridicule, a couple of years back I dreamt up a board game idea; Completion! Square board with triangular bit at top (basically shaped like a house). As you travel around the square section of the board you need to land on squares in order to collect five cards: • Deposit • Clear Searches • Mortgage Offer • Clear Enquiries • Clear Title As you land on certain squares you can pick up a card from one of these five piles. If you are lucky it will say you have one of the above. However, the piles will contain cards like: • You have not proved source of funds, no deposit • A new road proposal is showing on your Local search • Your lender wants a timber and damp report carried out • The seller has indicated that there was a neighbour dispute • The title deeds do not contain a right of way over the shared access Basically, you continue going around the square part until you collect your five cards. There may be other interesting squares: • Your Aunt has passed away and left you £30,000.00. You have your deposit • The issue with your searches has been resolved. You have your clear searches • Your lender has made your mortgage offer unconditional. You now have your mortgage offer • The estate agent has successfully negotiated a reduction in price, you can proceed • The unsatisfactory reply to your enquiry has been resolved. You have your clear enquiries • The title issue has been resolved by your property lawyer. You have a clear title I have also got something in the back of my mind about adding in a reference to gazumping or gazundering. When you have all five clear cards, you can exchange contracts and move on to the triangular part of the board. Which in short, means you need to throw a four in order to move to completion! The idea is to make understanding the home buying and selling process (to a degree) a fun exercise. Thoughts? Worth trying to develop? Any ideas how?

From: Rob Hailstone 03 February 2020 08:25 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 18 November 2019 14:14 PM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 08 August 2019 06:52 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 23 May 2019 07:07 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 01 November 2018 07:12 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 13 March 2018 07:35 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 26 February 2018 12:49 PM

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From: Rob Hailstone 19 September 2017 07:15 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 02 March 2017 07:00 AM

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From: Rob Hailstone 07 November 2016 13:13 PM

Rob Hailstone
It is good to see that the Conveyancing Association is setting up a working group to consider how to increase transparency, cut unnecessary delays and costs, and provide more information during the fraught house-buying process. My concern is that the CA is made up (mainly) of the volume conveyancers and bigger players. Will their views, comments and suggestions be as relevant to the other firms who collectively conduct the other 80% of property transactions? The CA have said: “This feels like a pivotal moment for how the home-buying process develops and the CA is committed to ensuring the views of our members are fully represented and we are able to support the BIS in delivering on what are sure to be some wide-reaching aims and ambitions.” The Bold Legal Group (420 member firms and growing, many of whom are also CA members) has similarly been working with the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and will also be responding to the ‘call for evidence’ when it comes. Maybe some joined up thinking at the outset would be a good idea. Responding to your comment Matt, I think we know what you, some removers and agents think is wrong with the process. You have been very vocal about these issues in the past: “The solicitor who takes three hours to send funds, due to a lacksy daisy bad attitude, well, can now take four. Why fix the real problem when you can mask it? Why force a lazy feckless individual to start funds transfer at 09:30 when you can just extend the time available and leave it so they can do nothing until after lunch?” Having said that, I think all stakeholders should be involved and whether the CA and BLG work together or not. I now extend the hand of co-operative friendship.

From: Rob Hailstone 23 June 2016 07:27 AM

Rob Hailstone
With the Government currently looking at making conveyancing "potentially quicker, simpler and cheaper" I can't see Land Registry fees being increased by it: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/480798/a_better_deal_for_families_and_firms_web.pdf For most people in England and Wales safe and secure ownership of their property is of paramount importance, for the most obvious of reasons. Their property is their biggest asset and will, in many cases, provide their families with financial security for generations to come. The Government’s proposal would mean a private company, rather than the impartial and statutory LR, would be adjudicating title on transactions between other private companies, on the land rights of citizens, of mortgage lenders, and local and central government. A few points to consider: • The LR underpins property ownership worth £4 trillion across England and Wales including £1 trillion of mortgages • The LR holds over 24 million titles of land • The LR should remain under impartial control • The LR provides a guaranteed register of interests in land • The LR is run at no cost to the Exchequer • A new owner is likely to want to increase prices • A new owner would seek to increase profits and is likely to want to ‘streamline’ services • A new owner would effectively have a monopoly market • With property fraud on the increase and the LR in many cases the last barrier to a fraud being perpetrated, the continued first class service being provided is vital • Selling the LR is financially very short-sighted. It already makes a substantial profit. With a very modest increase in the cost of some of the services provided, that profit could increase • The LR being run by a new owner might not be as efficient, causing delays in registrations and other applications, resulting in more transactions falling through Never has the expression’ if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’ come to mind so readily.

From: Rob Hailstone 17 May 2016 06:04 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 24 March 2016 04:48 AM

Rob Hailstone

From: Rob Hailstone 24 February 2016 06:32 AM

Rob Hailstone
"Shall I presume that, here at least, I shall not find any acknowledgment, or empathetic response to the situations I highlight? " NO! "You would not go away believing that there is no problem." I HAVE KNOWN THERE IS A PROBLEM FOR DECADES! "These are real situations, happening every week, up and down the country." WE KNOW! "Denial won't cut it." WE ARE NOT IN DENIAL! "We have a situation where funds failed to arrive from the Lender on the day of completion. We had ordered it in plenty of time, and had requested that it be sent to us the day before. The Lender didn’t do final credit checks until the day they were supposed to send the funds. That credit check revealed an issue which delayed the funds. We were served Notice of late completion on the afternoon of completion, and the funds arrived with us at 3.46pm, which was a minute after our bank cut-off point. We asked whether our clients could go into the property on the basis of a licence and/or undertakings but were advised that the other firm in the chain would not let the clients in the middle go into their new house (which was empty) “under any circumstances”. It transpired that this was incorrect, and the other firm (who is a firm local to us and known to us well) would have let the clients in on undertakings and a licence in the circumstances. We sent the purchase funds at 8am the following day. The following morning we received a fax with a list of “losses” which amounted to about £3,500! This was the interest under the contract of around £65, as well as a small amount of mortgage interest, and a similar amount of late completion interest on the onward purchase. The bulk of the funds required were for several nights hotel stay (as the sellers removal firm had taken everything away to storage and couldn’t redeliver it for several days), £600 for clothing, £1800 for the seller’s lost earnings, and removals/storage/redelivery fees etc. My issues isn’t with the amounts (although they were outrageous and unevidenced) but with the fact that, I believe, under the contract all we have to pay in order to complete the matter is the ‘compensation’ required under standard condition 6.8 and defined by 7.2. We sent the £65 by faster payment at around 10am and receipt was acknowledged. My understanding is that any other ‘losses’ should be claimed via the small claims court after completion in the usual way, surely? My clients were held to ransom all day, with the other side refusing to release the keys unless they got all their money, and threatening that the costs would increase if it continued for a further day, as more clothes would be needed (one of the clients had an important meeting apparently and couldn’t go without buying another new outfit from M&S) etc. My poor clients, one of whom is extremely pregnant and was suffering high blood pressure and fainting with the stress, eventually agreed to pay £2,500 in full and final settlement, but appears to want to sue someone else for their own losses now." Bold Legal Group Member We see just of much of this as you do Matt.

From: Rob Hailstone 15 January 2016 18:17 PM

Rob Hailstone
What personal digs Matt? Bit thin skinned methinks. Firstly, would you please explain to me (and others) your distinction between solicitors who practice conveyancing and licensed conveyancers? Secondly, the purpose of my response was to make it clear that there are many factors that result in late completions. In that at least, I appear to have made some progress: “This problem does not just relate to conveyancers.” “So this is not all in the hands of conveyancers.” And I am really grateful for you pointing out how timescales work in particular: “See the truth of this, is that if a conveyancer acting for first in chain chooses to send funds at 11:30am the outcome all the way along can be horrendous. All too frequently we find position four, five or six not getting key release until 4:30pm, or even later. Yet in those instances where first funds have been sent first thing, say 09:00am, there is much less likelihood of a late time further along.” 40 years in the business and I had no idea! All joking aside, unlike me, you have all the answers so over to you Matt: “This system can be modified, changed and/or adjusted, very easily.” “The problem with exchange and completion timeframes that you raised is also exceptionally easily fixed.” When you explain to me how these issues can be easily fixed, and assuming your explanations hold water, I will be the first to champion and back you. P.S. “The next customer stood in an estate agents' office without key release because no funds are in, you want to ring them and give them the good news on the CHAPS extension?” I have had to make that call a few times during my 30 years at the coal face of conveyancing and as unpleasant as it was, never shied away from it. Fortunately, my clients have always understood the real reason for those delays and that I, their conveyancer, was not “a lazy feckless individual.”

From: Rob Hailstone 08 January 2016 17:48 PM

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