5. The Draft Contract

This chapter considers issues relating to the drafting the contract for the seller. These include occupiers and tenancies; seller’s duty of disclosure; formalities; contents of the contract; deposit; completion; title guarantee; indemnity covenants; sales of part; option agreements; and conditional contracts.

19. Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, Part II

This chapter considers the provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, Part II, which provides security of tenure for the majority of business tenants by giving them a statutory right to renew their lease or tenancy. It explains the need for ‘tenancy’; need for ‘occupation’; need for ‘the purposes of a business’; key methods of termination under the Act; section 40 notices; interim rent applications; landlord’s statutory grounds of opposition; tenant’s right to compensation; and the terms of the new tenancy.

4. Taking Instructions and Other Initial Matters

This chapter discusses initial activities in the conveyancing process including advising joint buyers on co-ownership; advising buyers to have a survey of the property carried out before exchange of contracts; estate agents; capital gains tax; stamp duty land tax; client care and advice on costs; professional conduct; the Law Society’s National Conveyancing Protocol; and advising on finance.

1. Introduction

Property Law and Practice (PLP) covers all aspects of the process that is otherwise called conveyancing. It is how practitioners arrange the transmission of property ownership from seller to buyer. This introductory chapter provides an overview of PLP. Specifically, it explains the three foundations upon which PLP rests: land law, contract law, and trusts.

6. Pre-Contract Searches and Enquiries

This chapter examines pre-contract searches and enquiries. Searches are requests for information about the subject property made by conveyancers that are sent to various agencies that hold that information, like local authorities. Enquiries are questions about the subject property that are sent to a seller to answer. These are interesting and important subjects within the conveyancing process and cover a lot of points that can be of considerable consequence to a buyer.

8. Deducing and Investigating Title

Deducing title is the process by which the seller demonstrates to the buyer that the seller owns the property and can convey it. In a modern conveyancing transaction the parties will deduce and investigate title before contracts are exchanged. This chapter explains the process of deducing title; investigating title; and some special title situations.

17. New Properties

This chapter discusses issues relating to the sale of new properties. It covers acting for a developer or buyer, road and sewer agreements, structural defects insurance, and synchronizing completion of a related sale when acting for the buyer of new property.

12. Pre-Completion Procedures

Pre-completion searches are a critical part of any property transaction and conveyancing practitioners must be fully acquainted with all aspects of pre-completion searches. This chapter discusses pre-completion procedures; pre-completion when acting for the buyer; pre-completion when acting for the seller; pre-completion searches; acting for the lender; buying from a company; physical inspection of the subject property; and completion statements.

16. Leaseholds

This chapter first examines some of the more commonly encountered elements or clauses in most leases. Essentially, it sets out what one might expect to see in a lease of either residential or commercial property. The discussions then turn to the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook for Solicitors and Licensed Conveyancers England and Wales; defective leases; liability on covenants in leases: enforcement; granting new leases; existing leases; and enfranchisement.

14. Post-Completion Procedures

Conveyancing practitioners, whether they are acting for the seller or the buyer, still have much to do once completion has taken place. However, the buyer’s solicitor will have more work to do, as in most transactions acting on behalf of the buyer means after completion dealing with the possible payment of stamp duty land tax and then registration of the title and/or transfer. So far as the seller is concerned, if there is a mortgage, paying off any lender is required, as well as accounting to the client for the net proceeds of sale. This chapter considers all these post-completion procedures.