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LPC Law Notes Property Law and Practice Notes

Pre Contract Searches Notes

Updated Pre Contract Searches Notes

Property Law and Practice Notes

Property Law and Practice

Approximately 490 pages

A collection of the best LPC PLP notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through dozens of LPC samples from outstanding students with the highest results in England and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor".

In short these are what we believe to be the strongest set of PLP notes available in the UK this year. This collection of notes is fully updated for recent exams, a...

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Property Law and Practice Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

PRE-CONTRACT SEARCHES

Searches should be made because:

  1. Principle of caveat emptor

  2. Seller only has a limited duty of disclosure

  3. Buyerโ€™s solicitor should check for incumbrances and the effect on clients plans, value and resale

Search Form/where? When? Why?
Local Land Charges Register LLC1 Always

Reveals many things which the buyer should be advised on and consider how it will affect the buyerโ€™s proposed use.

If planning permission is revealed, then the seller should be required to produce copies. Where financial charges are revealed, the seller will be requested to discharge these prior to completion.

Local authority CON29/ CON29O Always They will help build up a complete picture of the property and may influence his decision as to whether or not to proceed with the purchase.
Pre-contract enquiries of the seller Residential: SPIF (or SLIF for leasehold) Always

Elicit information from the seller, mainly relating to the physical aspects of the property, which he is not bound by law to disclose

E.g. whether there has been change in use of the property

Commercial: CPSE
Water and drainage The water company serving the property Always If the property does not drain into a public sewer, the buyer will be liable for costs of maintaining. If there is a public sewer, their consent will be needed for development.
Environmental Professional search provider [Desktop] always required Clean up liabilities, dangers of contamination and decision whether to buy.
Personal Inspection Buyer Always Look for boundaries, evidence of easements, existence of other occupiers, and discrepancy in fixtures and fittings
Chancel repair ChancelCheck When in the vicinity of a medieval church Because you may be liable to contribute towards the repair of the chancel
Company Against Registered No. at Companies House When the seller is a company Check if the company exists, if it owns the land, if it has the power to buy and sell the land, any floating and/or fixed charges (non-crystallisation) and financial position (walk away if...

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