Bryan Slater makes a good point about additional enquiries causing delays.
There are just under 3,000 firms in the Conveyancing Quality Scheme, all of whom will be bound by an undertaking given by the senior responsible officer within their firm to use the protocol. Section 32 specifically discourages this type of enquiry and goes on to say ‘indiscriminate use of standard additional enquiries may constitute a breach of the protocol’.
In a session at the Law Society Property Conference earlier this month, the audience indicated that unnecessary additional enquiries were less problematic following release of the revised Law Society Property Information Form (TA6). This has been upgraded to include all the information a buyer should find necessary, plus any which, in the words of the protocol, is relevant to the particular nature or location of the property.
Jonathan Smithers, vice-president, the Law Society