Clarke and Son News

Almost half of UK companies have dismissed employees over the past year due to e-mail abuse and over half regularly keep tabs on employees’ use of e-mail to make sure they remain compliant with company policy, a survey has found.

The survey also found that nearly half of the UK’s companies conducted investigations into e-mail leaks of confidential or sensitive data over the same period. These figures show that UK companies are more suspicious of and more rigorous in checking employees’ use of e-mail than their counterparts in Germany and France.

Research carried out by Forrester on behalf of e-mail security firm Proofpoint found that 44% of UK companies had fired employees in the past year because of violation of e-mail policies while 78% of them had disciplined workers for the same offence.

It also found that 53% of UK companies surveyed regularly audited outbound e-mail content while 47% have investigated a leak in the last year.

Companies’ principal worries about e-mail use are that employees could be breaking financial disclosure or corporate governance rules, could be leaking intellectual property or trade secrets, could be leaking sensitive memos or could be breaching privacy regulations.

The report highlights “the convenience and ubiquity of e-mail as a business communications tool” and acknowledges that e-mail has “exposed enterprises to a wide variety of legal, financial and regulatory risks associated with outbound email”. The report continues, “Enterprises continue to express a high level of concern about creating, managing and enforcing outbound messaging policies.”

The survey discovered that, whereas at one time only e-mails needed to be monitored in order to know what information was leaving the company, there was now an increase in the various ways that information could now be disseminated

Social networking sites were highlighted as exposing confidential or sensitive information for 16% of companies while 9% experienced the exposure of sensitive information via video or audio files posted on a media sharing site.

The report concludes, “The results clearly show that e-mail, web-mail, FTP, blogs, message boards, media sharing sites and social networking sites are a source of concern as well as real-world risk for IT professionals working in large enterprises.”

All digital traffic routed through company channels has the potential to inflict damage on businesses of any size and in a number of ways.

If you think that your business would benefit from expert guidance on how to put in place policies to minimise the impact resulting from improper use of company resources, contact Clarke & Son Solicitors today. We’re here to help.

Council of Mortgage Lenders director general Michael Coogan said this week that:

In the wake of the credit crunch, 2008 will be remembered as a very weak year in the housing market. But our forecasts assume some indirect benefits from the Bank of England special liquidity scheme beginning to have an effect in the mortgage market in the later part of the year. Over the next few months, lending volumes will get worse before they get better. The market is still very uncertain, but lenders are working hard to ensure that borrowers coming off fixed rates remain on track, that arrears and repossessions are minimised, and that pricing is as attractive as they can make it in a market where they must manage the demand for lending with caution.

Paul Cowdery, Conveyancing Partner at Clarke & Son LLP, comments:

Our experience is that whilst activity has been quieter than usual, there is still movement in the Basingstoke market, particularly where properties are priced realistically.

However where there are long chains problems can arise as it only takes one party to have difficulties with mortgage finance for the whole chain to fall through.  We have found recently that more clients have considered chain breaking (i.e. selling their own property and going into temporary accommodation before purchasing) as an option.

The government has announced that it is extending the transitional arrangements introduced last year which enabled properties to be marketed once the Home Information Pack (HIP) had been commissioned.

The announcement means that the current arrangements will remain in force until 31st December 2008, and also requires that only the lease will be needed for leasehold properties.

From 1 October 2008, occupiers of large public buildings will be required to show a display energy certificate (DEC).

Each DEC will contain an indication of the annual carbon dioxide emissions from the building. The aim of DECs is to enable the public to compare the energy performance of public buildings and to promote improved energy use.

From the beginning of April, all qualifying properties that are brought to market now need a HIP, including newbuilds. This is because Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) can now be produced for all types of properties, and hence the exceptions that used to exist for properties built to the latest building regulations have been eliminated.

The “Drop-Dead Date” that required properties already on the market before HIPs were introduced, to have a HIP, has still not been announced. With the first year of HIPs nearly upon us, there is still no confirmation whether such a measure will ever be introduced.

June 1st Position
To clarify the position from June 1st 2008 , this merely marks the end of the temporary measures that were introduced last year. From that date, it will be necessary to have the following documents available for prospective buyers before a property can be marketed;

• Index
• Sale statement
• Evidence of title (or a copy of the SIM search showing registration status)
• Energy Performance Certificate

As before, the seller still has 28 days to deliver the searches and the leasehold documentation, but the property may be marketed without these, although the HIP provider must demonstrate continuing efforts to obtain such documents.

EPCs for rental properties
Although not due until later this year, discussions are starting about the requirement for EPCs for rental properties. It appears that the impact of the introduction of EPCs on the rental market will be nowhere near as onerous as many had feared, with a single EPC required only at the first change of tenancy after the start date of October 1st 2008. As EPCs last for ten years, and are NOT required at future changes of tenant, their introduction will be less costly than some had thought.

This article has been created using material produced by The Partnership from their April 2008 HIPS Newsletter.  The Partnership, Denmark Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4DA