News

Full e-conveyancing?

When will we have full e-conveyancing – that is, the electronic transfer of titles, enabling a change of the register to be made simultaneously with the movement of money on completion day? Not yet, is the answer. Malcolm Dawson, Chief Land Registrar and Chief Executive says: “…our customers and stakeholders are unconvinced that the time is right to offer e-transfers… they have not yet been persuaded that e-transfers are desirable or achievable in a time of low property sales and increased risk of fraud…As a result, we’re planning to put the development of e-transfers on hold….after listening to a […]

Adoption of drains and sewers

As covered in this month’s CPI Update, The Water Industry (Schemes for Adoption of Private Sewers) Regulations 2011 (SI 2011/1566) came into force on July 1, 2011. These regulations bring about, on October 1, 2011, a major change in responsibility for sewers and drains in England and Wales by transferring out of private ownership all lateral drains and private sewers. The regulations require the Secretary of State (or Welsh ministers) to make schemes for the adoption of all private sewers and lateral drains which immediately before July 1 communicate with a public sewer. The schemes will provide for the relevant […]

Vacant possession in the context of a break clause

What amounts to delivery of vacant possession in the context of a break clause that is exercisable on condition of such delivery? Lord Justice Rimer, delivering the leading opinion of the Court of Appeal in NYK Logistics (UK) Ltd v Ibrend Estates BV [2011] EWCA Civ 683, says: “The concept of ‘vacant possession’ in the present context is not, I consider, complicated. It means what it does in every domestic and commercial sale in which there is an obligation to give ‘vacant possession’ on completion. It means that at the moment that ‘vacant possession’ is required to be given, the […]

Reform of easements and covenants

The Law Commission has published a report on its consultation on Easements, Covenants and Profits à Prendre. In this report, the Law Commission makes recommendations for reform of the law, including (inter alia) a new system of land obligations elevating restrictive and positive covenants to the status of legal interests and thereby enabling both forms of obligation to bind successors in title, allowing in relation to easements the same person to own both the dominant and servient registered land tenements, and enabling the creation of easements that allow a substantial use of land by the benefiting owner (for example, the […]

Home-owner monitoring service

This month’s CPI Update makes reference to the Land Registry’s proposal on its website for a “home-owner monitoring service” which is intended to protect registered properties against title fraud.

In an article on property fraud in The Observer, Sunday 15 May 2011, (Property title fraud costs Land Registry £26m in compensation) the newspaper states that “according to internal Registry emails, released under the Freedom of Information Act, the [Land Registry] has been avoiding publicly addressing the issue of land certificates. The confidential emails state that questions on the subject could lead to “unwanted questions of whether [their abolition] has contributed to […]

Contracts made by email?

Interesting comments are made by Mr Justice David Richards, on the making of a land contract by email, in the recent insolvency case of Green (Liquidator of Stealth Construction Ltd) v Ireland [2011] EWHC 1305 (Ch) in which he said that an email and its reply, taken together, could constitute a single document for the purpose of section 2, Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989: “In my view, this is right where, as here, the second email is sent as a reply and so creates a string, as opposed to be simply a new email referring to an […]

Code of Practice for Service Charges in Commercial Property

Hot on the heels of the publication of The City of London Law Society specimen service charge clauses (see next item below) and the RICS Information paper on commercial property service charge handover procedures (see next but two item below) the RICS has launched the second edition of its Code of Practice for Service Charges in Commercial Property, effective from 1 October 2011.

City of London specimen service charge clauses

The City of London Law Society has published some specimen service charge clauses on its website – one set for an office building, and one set for a retail centre. To see the clauses, click on:Office building service charge.
Retail service charge.
The service charge provisions, drafted by City of London Law Society Land Law committee, are stated to be aimed at achieving a balanced draft inspired by and reflecting many elements of the RICS Code of Practice on Service Charges in Commercial Property. The introductory notes warn that, despite the intended fairness of the clauses, “it may be appropriate […]

Investment sales – service charge handover

An RICS Information paper on commercial property service charge handover procedures has been published on the BPF website. The information paper is aimed at property owners, property managers and legal advisers. Its intention is to set out a series of procedures to be applied during the service charge handover period on the sale of investment property. Of course, it has no contractually binding force and is merely an attempt to state best or normal practice – although whether it does is for the reader to decide. Service charge handover procedures are invariably dealt with in investment sale agreements by way […]

Administration – proposals to change rules

The Government has announced an intention to change rules relating to insolvency administration procedures by including measures to improve transparency in pre-pack administration sales. The minister, Ed Davey (Minister for Employment Relations, Consumers and Postal Affairs) announced on 31 March that: “In order to inject greater transparency into the process I intend to require administrators to give notice to creditors where they propose to sell a significant proportion of the assets of a company or its business to a connected party, in circumstances where there has been no open marketing of the assets. This will enable creditors to express concerns, […]

The Law Society’s Code for Completion by Post

The Law Society’s updated Code for Completion by Post applies from April 1 and is available on the Law Society’s website. See New Code for Completion. The Code for Completion by Post is often adopted in commercial transactions. The preamble to the new version says: “The code provides a voluntary procedure for postal completion for residential transactions”. However, if a commercial property lawyer uses the SCR Form (Solicitor’s Completion Requirements) in a transaction, and asks on the form if the seller’s solicitor will “adopt the current Law Society’s Code for Completion by Post” it will be this new Code that […]

Standard Conditions of Sale (5th Edition)

The new Standard Conditions of Sale (5th Edition), intended for use in purely residential property transactions, have been published, and a specimen copy can be seen on the Law Society’s website at SCS 5th Edition. Full commentary is provided in this month’s CPI Update to be published on 1 April.

Competition – OFT final guidance for land agreements

The Office of Fair Trading has published final guidance on its website on the application of the Chapter I Prohibition on anti-competitive agreements to land agreements.

The Competition Act 1998 (Land Agreements Exclusion Revocation) Order 2010 takes effect from April 6, 2011. By revoking the land agreement exclusion, such agreements will now come within the Chapter I Prohibition for the first time. If an agreement falls foul of the Chapter I Prohibition, it becomes unenforceable. Further, it may expose the person who imposed the prohibition to the possibility of injunctions, damages and, if sufficiently serious, to an OFT investigation, and a […]

Planning and the Budget 2011

Various planning proposals were announced in yesterday’s Budget, including a presumption in favour of sustainable development, new fast track planning for major infrastructure, freeing up land use changes from business use to residential without the need for planning permission, ensuring planning applications and appeals are dealt with within in 12 months. A summary of the proposals announced by the Chancellor can be seen in a document posted on the DCLG website. Click on: Planning and the Budget.

Budget 2011 – SDLT changes

A quick scan of the Budget 2011 papers reveals a couple of small SDLT changes taking immediate effect. These include new rules aimed at preventing the combination of sub-sale treatment and alternative property finance relief from being used as a vehicle to avoid SDLT, and new rules preventing the manipulation of values on exchanges in order to avoid SDLT. In addition, a new SDLT relief in the Finance Bill will have the effect of unlinking linked residential property transactions (bulk purchases of dwellings) so that the taxpayer will pay SDLT on each acquisition at the rate of tax applicable to […]

Priority searches – Royal Wedding?

Got a search certificate with a priority period expiring on the day Kate and Wills get hitched? Land Registry reports that results for official searches with priority issued on Thursday 17 March are quoting an incorrect priority period. The certificates show the priority expiring on 29 April which is the date of the royal wedding and a bank holiday. Land Registry says on its website that customers who receive a certificate which states that the priority period expires on 29 April should add one business day to their priority period. This means that the correct priority period expires on 3 […]

SDLT avoidance

HMRC announced in January that it was “challenging all schemes which we have identified as being in use. These include where…it is claimed that combining a sub-sale with a transaction involving a partnership reduces the consideration chargeable to SDLT by virtue of the special partnership computational rules…” It seems to have lost the first battle in this challenge. The First-Tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) decision in DV3 RS Limited Partnership v HMRC [2011] UKFTT 138 (TC) has resulted in a victory for the (non) taxpayer. This is a case in which an acquisition of property in Regent Street, London for £65,100,00 […]

Mortgage fraud increase

Mortgage fraud increased by 18% in 2010, largely driven by a 27% increase in the number of application frauds compared with 2009. Application frauds now account for 96% of all mortgage frauds, with identity frauds and misuse of facility frauds dropping back to the levels recorded in 2008. The increase in mortgage application fraud was in line with expectations that falling house prices and tighter lending criteria have exposed falsified mortgages, especially those where key information on the original application form, such as salary, was untrue. See FRAUDSCAPE: Depicting the UK’s fraud landscape (March 2011), an annual report published by […]