Simon Hoare: ...-Pilate-like, wash their hands of it. My Department will not do that. Of course, her constituents are perfectly entitled to seek legal advice. That would come at a cost, and it may well be that the conveyancing at the time of purchase is worth a re-exploration. Pausing there, my right hon. Friend presented to the House some pretty horrible and frightening figures. We are all conscious,...
Simon Hoare: ...-Pilate-like, wash their hands of it. My Department will not do that. Of course, her constituents are perfectly entitled to seek legal advice. That would come at a cost, and it may well be that the conveyancing at the time of purchase is worth a re-exploration. Pausing there, my right hon. Friend presented to the House some pretty horrible and frightening figures. We are all conscious,...
Bob Blackman: ...in this country to do that after six months without even notifying the leaseholders. Considering that individuals might not be given the proper advice about the potential consequences during conveyancing, it is absolutely disgraceful. The final thing I will say about the leasehold reform Bill is that we need to extend the measures in the Building Safety Act 2022 to ensure that freeholders...
Stephen Doughty: ...struggling with defective buildings, fire and building safety issues, extortionate and often inexplicable service charges, and being caught in mortgage prisons. There is a whole industry around conveyancing, surveying and so on, which has failed many of my residents who find themselves caught up in untenable situations. In particular, I have met some of them in recent weeks who have been...
Fergus Ewing: ...foolscap. I have not yet received a reply, but I hope that the minister will do more than consider what I have to say today, because I say it as somebody who spent 20 years as a lawyer, working in conveyancing to a great extent, and now nearly 25 years as an MSP for a constituency that is largely rural. Over that period, I have been fortunate to work closely with land agents, surveyors,...
Rachel Maclean: ...market. In recent years, it has introduced digital tools relating to electronic signatures and a standard for digital identity solutions. HMLR is working collaboratively with stakeholders in the conveyancing sector and is considering a range of technologies to contribute to a truly digital, automated conveyancing process. Government’s Roadmap to a Digital Future includes digital...
the Earl of Lytton: ...of yesterday. I outlined in Committee the aims of these amendments, which have had the benefit of expert scrutiny by parliamentary counsel and construction councils, construction administrators, conveyancers, academics, property professionals and trade associations. There has been support from all these quarters. I am therefore satisfied that the amendments are technically competent,...
Baroness Scott of Bybrook: ...leaseholders, including those who have been prevented from selling. I set out in my opening speech that the department has engaged with numerous practitioners, including landlords, named managers, conveyancers and lenders. I can confirm that this was done through written correspondence to the department and stakeholder round tables. I reiterate that the department is not required to...
Baroness Scott of Bybrook: ...the provisions in the 2022 regulations. Since the protections came into force last summer, we have engaged extensively with leaseholders, landlords and others affected, including lenders and conveyancers. The Government do not consider that a formal consultation would add to our understanding of the issues specifically covered by these regulations, and I note that there is no requirement...
Ian Mearns: ...urban constituency, are living in limbo. Those affected are predominantly in properties that are under 18 metres high, which the Government deem not to require surveys, though mortgage companies, conveyancers and insurance companies most certainly do. Constituents in defective buildings are suffering from a cocktail of potential dangers, and they have no funding or recourse to remedy, and...
Rachel Maclean: ...clarity to potential purchasers and arms them with information about the arrangements for the maintenance of shared spaces on private estates. That information should be set out as part of the conveyancing process. Many already use the freehold management enquiries form, the FME1, published by the Law Society. I know that the form is used widely across the sector, but I have heard that for...
Lord Bellamy: ...that the relevant professionals are more familiar with the status of Scottish powers of attorney than may apparently be the case. The noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, noted the interest of licensed conveyancers in relation to Clause 2. I can confirm on behalf of the Government that the Bill is not intended to interfere with the previous or indeed ongoing practice of organisations such as...
Helen Morgan: ...have the resources to take the company to court, or to force it to hold meetings or get competitive quotes for the work required. As Members have pointed out, there is often no point turning to the conveyancing solicitor for help with faulty conveyancing, because the solicitor was recommended by the developer, which offered a discount to use them. Quite how those solicitors get around...
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town: .... Therefore, he promised, estate agents would be required to hold a professional qualification, with the Government undertaking to bring this industry up to “the same professional standards as conveyancers, solicitors and surveyors”. At that point, the department was really keen on regulating that group of residential agents to bring them up to the quality of surveyors. What a shame...
Rachel Maclean: .... This is being addressed urgently through a combination of recruitment, training, tactical deployment and automation. The Land Registry is working with partners across the market to enable digital conveyancing and co-create a simpler, paperless and quicker process for buying and selling property that will benefit home owners across England and Wales. Nutrient neutrality has been mentioned...
Lord Young of Cookham: ...contract with developers excludes this. If money is to be recovered, the leaseholders have to litigate. There are also early reports—the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, may have touched on this—of conveyancers saying they will no longer accept instructions to work on sales of leasehold flats in buildings of any height. That is because certain lenders—I have heard Nationwide mentioned—are...
the Earl of Lytton: ...time; I am talking about cementitious products that you would expect to have a 25-year or 30-year life, but which are not meeting anywhere near that standard. To that, we can add things such as bad conveyancing, where there are built-in conflicts in the very legal title and the entitlement somebody feels they have. These are the sorts of things that create totally unnecessary disputes...
Andrew Griffith: ...with mortgage lenders on all aspects of their business. However, it would not be appropriate for the Government to comment on, or intervene in, commercial decisions – including decisions around conveyancing – made by mortgage lenders. The UK benefits from a competitive mortgage market, and those seeking a mortgage provider that allows borrowers to choose their own legal service...
Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will update the Estate Agents Act 1979 to ensure that the security of the paper based system for the conveyancing of properties is retained.
James Daly: ...impossible because people need to be in an office. In my sector—this is why I mentioned my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests—the challenges during the pandemic of being a conveyancing solicitor working from home were incredible. I would argue strongly that people in my sector need to be in the office. There needs to be that team environment, because it increases...
