A conveyancing regulator has announced it is freezing fees for the coming year as its push to become the regulator of choice continues. Individuals regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority face a £20 increase this year. 

In a press release today Sheila Kumar, chief executive of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, said the fee freeze represented ‘a significant, real terms cut’ against a backdrop of inflation.

The CLC fee freeze means individual licence fees remain unchanged at £400 for conveyancing or probate, and £475 for both. Practising fees will continue to be based on a percentage of turnover. There are currently nine turnover bandings. Last year the CLC removed a levy for the OLC [Office for Legal Complaints] from the turnover-based fee and began to collect it separately – a process that will be retained.

The CLC’s estimate for projected total practising fee income for 2022/23 is £692,200 from individual licences, £1,652,997 from practising fees, and £847,251 from the OLC levy. Of the total amount of practising fees to be collected, £34,729 will be the CLC’s levy contribution towards funding the Legal Services Board.

Kumar

Kumar: Regulator's job to fully understand pressures firms face

Kumar said: ‘We believe, as a proactive and engaged regulator, it is our job to ensure we fully understand the pressures our firms face and find ways to encourage them to continue to provide a quality, cost effective service to the public.

‘We have cut practice fee rates by more than half over the course of the last seven years, and compensation fund contributions have been cut by around half too... Keeping the financial burden of regulation to a proportionate level is a key element of the CLC’s commitment to supporting a thriving conveyancing and probate sector responsive to the needs of the client.’

Last month the CLC revealed that the number of firms switching regulator was starting to pick up and said it was best placed to provide conveyancing and probate regulation.

The SRA is the largest legal services regulator in England and Wales. In August, the Legal Services Board approved an application by the Law Society and SRA to raise the practising fee from £266 in 2021/22 to £286 in 2022/23. Practising fees charged to firms is based on turnover.

Of the total £114.7m that will be collected in 2022/23, £60.5m will go to the SRA. The Law Society will retain £32.8m. The remaining £21.4m will fund the work of the Legal Ombudsman, Legal Services Board, Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision.