At Millar & Bryce our approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) reflects the steps that we are taking to ensure we are, and remain, a good corporate citizen. Social responsibility encompasses everything we do that has an impact on society around us – it is our values and behaviour as an organisation. We recently partnered with AAI Employability on an innovative workplace initiative called Graduating Communities as part of our ongoing commitment to supporting third sector organisations around us. Through this partnership we were able to second one of our colleagues for three months to the Social Bite Village. 

The pilot placement was a huge success and has laid the foundation for an ongoing programme with the Social Bite Village. We look forward to working on many new initiatives into the future supporting local projects.

When we entered lockdown on 24th March we updated all our customers, suppliers and industry partners on the execution of our Business Continuity Plan and the measures we were taking to focus on the health and safety of our employees and their families during what was anticipated to be a difficult time ahead. Whilst we have continued to support our customers with a fully-staffed business working remotely, these essential priorities from a staff perspective remain and we continue to keep these at the forefront of our thinking in terms of planning our future return to office-based delivery.

What we have proven in these most challenging of circumstance is that our investment in collaborative, CRM and customer integration technology solutions have enabled us to continue to deliver with accuracy and timeliness throughout the lockdown period. With the First Minister’s announcement yesterday of relaxation in the house moving restrictions with effect from 29th June we are ready and capable in terms of increasing the support we can give to firms and their clients in getting the property industry moving again. We played an active role, with other industry stakeholders, as a member of the Scottish Government’s Home Moves in Scotland Restart and Recovery Working Group which has brought together safe moving guidelines to enable this restart.

One of the benefits of Millar & Bryce being part of Landmark Information Group, the property, land and environmental information specialists, is that we have had an early insight through sister divisions on how the reopening of the English market in mid-May has played out. Some bottlenecks have clearly emerged there, notably around survey backlogs and availability of higher LTV mortgage products, but there are clear signs now in our businesses working in upstream activities with mortgage brokers, estate agents and valuation that activity levels are recovering closer to pre-lockdown levels.

Despite all the re-emergence activity the same final message as 23rd March remains valid – please stay safe and look after each other.

Richard Hepburn
Managing Director

The pilot placement was a huge success and has laid the foundation for an ongoing programme with the Social Bite Village. We look forward to working on many new initiatives into the future supporting local projects.

Over the last few days, we have had a number of queries following the statement from ROS that “Digital submissions no longer need Advance Notices”.

To be clear this does not take away the usual requirement to submit an Advance Notice when a transaction is pending.

ROS have confirmed that from 27 May “Digitally submitted deeds will no longer need to be covered by an Advance Notice.” However to clarify, this statement only relates to transactions that previously would not have required an Advance Notice. Initially ROS put in place interim measures to open the Application Record. These measures included using the Advance Notice as a placeholder and when the application of the live deed was submitted it followed the Advance Notice onto the application record. If no Advance Notice had been submitted the digital application could not follow the same process. Since 27 May this issue has been resolved and if you have a transaction that does not require an Advance Notice you can now use the digital submission process without the need to lodge an Advance Notice.

An Advance Notice continues to secure the transaction while waiting for the registration application to arrive and provides certain protections for the deed for a stated period of time.

It is not often you work with a hero, but in our eyes at Millar & Bryce that is exactly what Darren Mossman our HR Manager has become! 

After many years of dialysis and waiting for a kidney donor, finally Darren was told that a match had been found and he would be able to have a transplant in February.

This life changing surgery happened just as we all went into lockdown and unfortunately there were complications but like a true fighter and with the spirit of a lion, Darren fought hard and with the care, dedication and amazing work of the staff at the Renal Transplant Unit at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow the kidney has now settled and Darren has recovered. 

Darren is now back at work with a spring in his step and a smile on his face which has never left him through the turbulent few months he has been through.

We are so pleased to have Darren fit and healthy and we know what a difference this has meant for him. At M&B we wanted to acknowledge and support the amazing work that NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and QEUH have done for Darren so we made a little video of some of the M&B team walking 500 miles and have created a just giving page to raise funds for the unit that has helped him so much.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/millarandbryce-500-mile-challenge?utm_id=1&utm_term=JxqJrB5n5 

Please donate a little if you can and keep this amazing unit going so they can continue help more people who need transplants and support. 

To all the people who have helped support Darren over the years and from all of us at M&B a huge thankyou and we hope that you stay safe during this time.

In a time of extreme uncertainty due to the ongoing changes imposed as a result of COVID-19, Millar & Bryce and DUAL Asset Underwriting have been working together to find a gap insurance solution to help support and de-risk some of the challenges that the conveyancing profession is facing.

Further to communications from Registers of Scotland and The Law Society Scotland, as a direct consequence of the UK government’s position on COVID-19, questions in relation to the Application Register have increased uncertainty within the profession.

DUAL is therefore pleased to be able to offer solicitors a new “Gap” insurance product that will protect the application as a priority. Available for Residential and Commercial transactions as well as Lender only cover.

Further details in relation to the “Gap” insurance product, as well as a quote, can be obtained by contacting Millar & Bryce through contingency@millar-bryce.com.

A range of other insurance options that DUAL provides, are available at https://millarbryce.my-defective-title-shop.com/ This portal provides instant, multiple quotes that can be ordered online with a policy provided in seconds.