Conveyancing Enquiries - The Latest Update

Introduction

Raising relevant preliminary enquiries is a crucial part of the conveyancing process - your buyer client is not yet committed to buy and what you find out may be crucial to their decision to proceed. Your seller client needs to know the importance of providing meaningful and not misleading answers. Asking the right questions is one thing - what to do with the replies is another.

Against a background of ever increasing burdens of investigation, both for your client and their mortgagee, which once meant approving title but which has now widened to far wider subjects such as the condition of the property and even identity.

Make the wrong call, whether acting for a seller or buyer, and the risks are immense - going to the heart of the contract, issues of fraud and your professional obligations.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Misrepresentation and the importance of sellers answering preliminary enquiries fully/developer disputes - Wilson & Sharp Investments Ltd v Falmouth Property Investments Ltd [2019]
• Not only ‘buyer beware’ but also ‘seller beware’ - the risk of fraudulent misrepresentation, the Misrepresentation Act 1967, remedies, rescission and damages
• Law Society Management Enquiry Form FME 1
• Specific questions from solar panels to septic tanks, Japanese knotweed to double glazing, and a look at forms of enquiries. Liability of surveyor/conveyancer - Ryb v Conway Chartered Surveyors [2019]
• TA13 - revised Law Society Code for Completion by Post and additional questions raised
• New build - off plan purchases, NHBC questions
• Indemnity policies - take it or leave it or more questions?
• Non-reliance clauses, attempts at exclusion, Standard Conditions of Sale 5th Edition, the protocol and the danger of ‘not so far as the seller is aware’
• Questions of insolvency, indemnity insurance, identity and fraud - the appeal decision in Dreamvar
• Enquiries to raise with your own client - do they own another dwelling, are they really first time buyers, a dispute or a complaint
• Questions of survey or additional reports, what to ask the lender and New Build Disclosure Forms
• Your obligation to warn your client as to the effectiveness of your advice and the scope of your retainer

This webinar was recorded on 2nd October 2019