Conveyancing solicitors could be liable for buyers’ losses if they accept defective searches, Law Society President Paul Marsh has warned, as new regulations on the contents of home information packs come into force.
From next Monday, transitional measures that allowed packs to include incomplete personal local authority searches – providing omissions were covered by insurance – come to an end.
The change means that search information must be complete to comply with the regulations, which could put pressure on personal search companies and on local authorities to cut corners.
Marsh warned solicitors to be on guard against less scrupulous personal search companies which might continue to submit incomplete information. ‘Practitioners have to be certain that searches comply with the regulations. If a solicitor puts together a HIP with a defective search, it will be not be compliant and they could face action by trading standards and a possible fine,’ he said.
‘If acting for a buyer, and they accept a defective search, they could be liable if that buyer suffers losses as a result of the incomplete search information.’
Monday also sees the introduction of a new property information questionnaire (PIQ) requiring sellers to answer general questions about the property. Dubbing the PIQ a ‘pointless information questionnaire’, Marsh said: ‘It’s a meaningless document that’s no substitute for the full set of enquiries that have to be made during the conveyancing process. It will only lead to duplication of some information.’
Meanwhile, two new events will be added to the legal triggers for compulsory first registration of title when the Land Registration Act 2002 (Amendment) Order 2008 comes into force on 6 April. They are the appointment of a trustee of unregistered land held in a trust, and the partitioning of unregistered land held in trust among the beneficiaries of the trust.
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