SRA vs CLC: Referral-Income Rules for Conveyancers, Plainly

Conveyancing firms in England and Wales are regulated either by the Solicitors Regulation Authority or by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers. Whichever applies to you, the starting point on referral income is the same: it is permitted, and it has always been permitted, provided the arrangement is handled openly and in the client's interests.

This matters because a lingering myth suggests referral fees are somehow prohibited or frowned upon. They are not. What both regulators care about is not whether you receive a referral fee, but whether the client knows about it and whether their interests remain paramount. Transparency, not abstinence, is the rule.

Understanding this clears away the main reason firms hesitate. Referring clients to vetted, regulated advice firms and taking a share of the resulting fee is an established, compliant practice under both regimes. What changed over the years was not permission but expectation: regulators now want the client fully informed, which is a standard any well-run firm can meet as a matter of routine.

The SRA framework rests on principles and its Codes of Conduct rather than a long list of prohibitions. On referrals, the core expectations are straightforward.

• Tell the client about any referral arrangement and any fee or benefit you receive
• Make sure the referral is in the client's best interests, not just your own
• Do not let the arrangement compromise your independence or your duty to the client
• Keep the client free to choose; the introduction is an option, not a condition of your service

The emphasis is on informed clients and undivided loyalty. If a client understands the arrangement, is free to decline, and is genuinely served by the introduction, an SRA-regulated firm is on solid ground. The disclosure does not need to be elaborate; it needs to be honest and clear.

The CLC, which regulates licensed conveyancers specifically, takes a similarly principles-based approach with its own Code of Conduct and outcomes. The practical requirements will feel familiar.

• Disclose referral arrangements and any fees to the client in writing
• Act in the client's best interests and manage any conflict of interest
• Ensure the client's decisions are properly informed
• Maintain your independence and the quality of your own service

The vocabulary differs a little from the SRA's, but the substance is the same: openness about the fee, the client's interests first, and no compromise of independence. Firms sometimes assume the two regimes diverge sharply on referrals. In practice, both land in the same place, and a compliant approach under one is very close to a compliant approach under the other.

Strip away the differences in language and the shared requirements are simple to operate. Disclose the arrangement and the fee. Put it in writing. Make sure the referral genuinely serves the client. Keep the client free to say no. Do not let the income affect the advice you give on the conveyancing itself.

Note the boundary that runs through all of it: you are the introducer, never the adviser. You do not give regulated financial or estate advice; you point clients to vetted, regulated firms who do. That separation is what keeps you clearly inside your own permissions, whichever regulator you answer to.

You should never imply guaranteed outcomes, returns or free of risk arrangements when making an introduction, because those are not claims an introducer can make. Your job ends at a well-disclosed, well-matched hand-off.

Once the rules are stated plainly, the nervousness usually fades. Referral income is not a grey area to be approached warily; it is a long-standing, expressly permitted arrangement with a small number of sensible conditions attached. Both the SRA and the CLC built their frameworks to allow it, on the basis that clients are told the truth.

A network membership makes this easier by supplying the vetted, regulated destination firms and a repeatable disclosure process, so the compliance side becomes routine rather than a case-by-case worry. Because the destinations are vetted and the disclosure is standardised, you are not left assessing each arrangement from scratch or wondering whether a given firm is appropriate to refer to. The member share of the referral fee, in the region of 60 to 70 percent, sits on top of a structure designed to keep you inside the rules.

Know your regulator, disclose the arrangement, keep the client's interests first, and stay firmly in the introducer role. Do that, and referral income is simply a compliant, useful part of a modern conveyancing practice.