News

Charity dispositions

The Charity Commission has updated its guidance note on dispositions of property by charities. Click on Sales, leases, transfers or mortgages: What trustees need to know about disposing of charity land. This Guidance takes into account legislative controls contained in the Charities Act 1993 and 2006 (including the advice requirements of section 36 of the 1993 Act) as well as pointing out to charity trustees their obligations in relation to disposals of land, and indicating circumstances in which Charity Commission consent to dispose is required.

Early completion – conveyancing is changing

The Land Registry’s new “early completion” policy – see Partial registration – official announcement – causes buyers’ solicitors to think NOW about what their completion requirements will be where the seller’s property is in mortgage.

The new policy applies in relation to applications for registration received on or after 3rd August 2009. You may be exchanging contracts now that may complete after the new policy is in force. The policy will apply to any application for the registration of a discharge of whole which is accompanied by another application, such as a transfer of whole and/or a new charge. If the […]

Changed content – report on title

The Property PSL report on title has been updated to take account of suggestions from subscribers, and new points considered following a recent round of CPD public and in-house training courses entitled “Effective Reporting on Title”. Click on: Report on Title to see the new version. You will now find attached to that page the original 2008 version, a May 2009 updated version (v2), and a further comparison version which is for information purposes only and which reveals (in red font) and explains the May 2009 changes. The lease report is in the process of being enhanced into a free-standing […]

Execution of deeds and documents – Mercury Tax

Property and corporate lawyers are still juggling with the implications of the Mercury Tax case (R (on the application of Mercury Tax Group Limited) v HMRC [2008] EWHC 2721 (Admin)). It will be recalled that this is the case involving the not unknown practice of obtaining a signed execution page from the client, and affixing it to a later finalised document. This, said Mr Justice Underhill, is ineffective as a mode of execution. The City of London Law Society has just published some guidance setting out possible options available to parties when executing documents at ‘virtual’ signings or completions (i.e. […]

Partial registration – official announcement

As suggested last week (see news item Partial registration where a form DS1 is missing) the Land Registry is introducing what it refers to as early completion (partial registration) of applications which await an outstanding form DS1 from a mortgage lender. Its new procedure will apply from 3rd August 2009. A Land Registry Practice Bulletin is published today on the Land Registry website; click: Early Completion. An analysis of it will appear here shortly.

Mortgage rescue schemes

A minor political point – Q: How many households have been approved for the Government’s mortgage rescue scheme in March 2009?
A: See http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/table1303.xls
(Clue – it is a number that is less than 2). Statistical data on mortgage arrears, repossessions, court actions and orders, and the Mortgage Rescue Scheme appears at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/repossessions/

Partial registration where a form DS1 is missing

It is understood that the Land Registry will shortly be publishing its plans for what it refers to as early completion (partial registration) of applications which await an outstanding form DS1 from a mortgage lender.

At present, where applying to register a discharge and transfer (and possible new charge) where a form DS1 is still awaited from the transferor’s mortgagee, the application is held in abeyance while enquiries are made to chase up the DS1. In order to counteract these delays, from August this year, the Land Registry will proceed to “early completion” of the application, by completing the registration […]

Community Infrastructure Levy

We can relax slightly our concerns about the arrival of Community Infrastructure Levy (the replacement proposal for planning gain supplement). Today’s Budget includes an announcement that the Government “will assist industry by delaying the introduction of the community infrastructure levy until 6 April 2010.”

Residential service charges – safety of trust funds

The DCLG has published a good practice guidance note for residential tenants who pay service charges where the funds are held on a statutory trust (under section 42 Landlord and Tenant Act 1987). The good practice guide – “Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) – Treatment of Service charges for residential properties” – deals with the implications of the collapse of a regulated financial institution with whom the trust funds may have been lodged. According to the guidance, “the FSCS would generally expect to treat the tenants (not the landlord) as being individually entitled to the protection available for that proportion […]

Sunday trading

Geoffrey Silman of Finers Stephens Innocent makes an interesting case for a review of the Sunday Trading Act 1994, especially in the light of continuing trading restrictions on an otherwise generally open British Easter Sunday. The piece written in The Times is: In the age of the internet, why restrict Sunday trading?

Retail leases often oblige shop owners to remain open for trade during normal shopping hours. Modern leases will regulate clearly what is meant by “normal” hours, and whether or not these times include Sundays. With older leases – those entered into before 26 August 1994 when the Act came […]

Land Registry Fee Order

As a reaction to the declining number of property transactions in 2009, Land Registry is increasing its fees across the board as from Monday 6 July. The Land Registry’s announcement states that this is the first time that there have been increases in scale and fixed fees for substantive registration applications since 1993, and the first increase of fees for information services since 2006. Click on Land Registry Fee Order announcement.

Planning Act 2008 – which bits came in on April 6?

As reported in this month’s edition of the CPI Update, certain provisions of the Planning Act 2008 came into force on April 6, 2009 along with other pieces of subordinate planning legislation. To assist practitioners in ascertaining what has now come into force, the DCLG has published a guide: Planning Act 2008 – Commencement of town and country planning provisions.

HIP changes today

Changes to the rules relating to Home Information Packs come into effect today. These changes include the removal of the temporary first day marketing exemption (meaning that HIPs must be made available on the first day a property is marketed), a requirement to include the Seller’s Property Information Questionnaire form in the pack, and the end of the use of insurance to cover missing data in personal searches. The DCLG has issued a briefing note for the property industry – click on DCLG Briefing Note.

New first registration triggers today

New first registration triggers come into force today as a result of the coming into effect of the Land Registration Act 2002 (Amendment) Order 2008. From today, first registration will apply whenever unregistered land is vested in a new trustee by way of (a) a deed of appointment of a new trustee, or a deed made in consequence of the appointment of a new trustee; (b) a memorandum executed as a deed evidencing the appointment of a new trustee (to which section 83 of the Charities Act 1993 applies); and (c) a vesting order of the court made under section […]

Section 237 TCPA 1990

One of the benefits of the CPO process is the use of section 237 TCPA 1990 which allows easements, covenants and other rights to be overridden as part of a CPO process to enable “building or other works to be erected, constructed, carried out or maintained” on the land where the land is held for planning purposes.

Case law (Thames Water Utilities v Oxford City Council [1999] 1 EGLR 167) has taken a limited view of the scope of the express wording of section 237 – holding that such rights are only overridden during the construction phase of a new […]

Credit crunch cases – AGAs, disclaimer and Hindcastle

We have an interesting AGA/insolvency/1995 Act case to look at in Shaw v Doleman [2009] EWCA Civ 283 (not yet available on free-to-view legal information services). It is a Court of Appeal case on the enforceability of an AGA after the disclaimer of a lease by the liquidator of the current tenant. It seems from the case report that the AGA was drafted by making use of a common precedent to be found in the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents. The EFP form of AGA states that the former tenant remains liable under the AGA for the “Liability Period” which […]

Lasting powers of attorney

On Wednesday of this week, the cost of registering a Lasting Power of Attorney became cheaper in response to a public consultation exercise. The cost goes down from £150 down to £120. See Powers of Attorney cost reduction takes effect.

Land Registry to re-introduce land certificates

Following one of the largest and most audacious property frauds in the UK, the Land Registry announced last week (see link below) that it would use powers under paragraph 4, Schedule 10, LRA 2002 to re-introduce land certificates as from April 1, 2009. Earlier this year, the Land Registry itself fell victim to a property scam performed by a gang of Ukrainian drug smugglers in which its own headquarters building in Lincoln’s Inn Fields was transferred from under the noses of the Land Registry and vested in a Panamanian registered company. The property was subsequently sold for £52.5m and is […]