About Us

The organisation is a not for profit company organised in 1987 and then known as NASPyC, by solicitors for the promotion of property selling by private practice firms of solicitors. It drew on the experience of solicitors in Scotland and the role of solicitors as property advisers early in the 20th century.

In the early 1990's the name was changed to Solicitors Property Group as the membership broadened and the issues addressed turned towards those with which all conveyancing and probate solicitors were concerned and gave support to traditional full service High Street firms of solicitors.

The late 1990's was a period of great activity and lobbying for changes in practice rules and resulted in the reform of the Property Selling Code for solicitors and the reform of Practice Rule 6.

This coincided with a renewal of interest in property centres and other forms of property selling activity. The advent of direct conveyancing services offered and linked through non solicitor estate agencies spurred these efforts. Whilst no new private Property Centres have been launched there has been a change to the dominating culture with the development and spread of the model of Property Shops imported by the Edinburgh Solicitors first into Newcastle and then further south into Yorkshire. Attempts to organise within the complex London market have so far been unsuccessful. There are however possibly hundreds of solicitors now independently established across the country with property selling activity. Practice Rule 13 remains an obstacle for successful firms wishing to expand as the rule is particularly inappropriate to the structure and business of a property selling practice.

The linkage of property selling to financial services remains underdeveloped partly because of professional rules that may change with promotion of multi disciplinary practices and partly because of the complexities and problems of that industry. It does however still offer remarkable potential for a firm to broaden its offer of property related professional services. Now that regulation ahs been moved away from the Law Society to the Financial Services Authority there is the likelihood that new types of organisation will emerge to take advantage of the opportunities that come with and form part of the offer for clients engaged in homebuying. The government proposals have now resulted in pilot schemes to identify the causes of delay and the potential for improvement by use of a Sellers Pack. This has raised a great deal of opposition from the traditional operators and yet marks a first step to closing up the many cracks that open to delay transactions and result in wasted costs.

This first step towards transparency will need to be matched by many other changes, not least to search and banking procedures before all the ills of the system are addressed. The interests of solicitors as independent professionals charged with ensuring honest dealings in the market need to be promoted. Their position needs to be maintained to oppose the consumer lobby squeeze on real estateistic fees and to prevent a reduction in standards which would overlook conflicts of interest. These paramount issues need to be kept at the forefront of considerations when changes are made.

Note to consumers: The Solcitors Property Group does not provide advice directly to the public, on issues such as property buying, selling property, surveys, stop reposession, sale and rent back, property cash buyers, cash for property sales, quick property sale, home buying company, pay cash for home, quick sale for cash, buy overseas property investment, or any other property matter. Please see our members directory for eligible solicitors who may provide professional guidance on property help.