Cyber-incident causes property completion problems

Property buyers have said their home completions are being left in limbo after a company providing IT services to law firms was hit by a cyber-incident.

The firm, CTS, was hit by the problem last week and said it still did not know when services would be restored.

Buyers have expressed their distress on social media after a number of completions were delayed.

The regulator said law firms needed to work together to avoid disruption.

Generally, on property completion day, the buyer's solicitor arranges for money to be transferred to the seller's solicitor. A failure to complete is technically a breach of contract.

The problem at CTS is having a knock-on effect on the firms involved in property completions. It is thought around 80 law firms have been affected.

Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, some buyers said they had only been given limited information and were surprised the problems had lasted so long.

"There is no proper update, communications and transparency. This is really horrendous. While I can acknowledge the situation and the complexity, the ... urgency is clear," said one.

"Meant to complete yesterday. Your inability to keep your cyber security in place is causing a lot of distress," said another.

CTS last posted an update on its website, and on X, on Friday, and would not answer further questions from the BBC on Monday.

"The outage was caused by a cyber-incident," according to its most recent update. "We are working closely with a leading global cyber forensics firm to help us with an urgent investigation into the incident and to assist us in service restoration.

"Whilst we are confident that we will be able to restore services, we are unable to give a precise timeline for full restoration."

A spokeswoman said it would update its website when there were any further developments. At present, the front page of its website carries a guide to how law firms can have the "capability to rapidly detect and respond to [cyber] threats".

On Monday, the property law regulator, the CLC, confirmed there was disruption to some transactions.

It said firms must ensure that they had alerted lawyers acting on the other side of any relevant transactions.

"This openness is vital for limiting as far as possible disruption and consumer harm," it said.