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Wednesday, 14 October 2015

THE NEW UK 5P PLASTIC BAG CHARGE





The English Government introducing a charge of 5p for a plastic bag has caused a frenzy.
English people are well known for loving a freebie and have said that they are going to protest about the charge by doing a full shop, putting it through the checkout, refusing to pay for bags and leaving the trolley full of shopping behind![1]
Supermarkets are even bracing themselves for hundreds of thousands of metal baskets being stolen as shoppers carry their items out in these instead of bags.
But there is a reason for the expense.
Wales introduced the 5p charge on 1st October 2011 and it has helped reduce the single use carrier bag use by 71%.
Carrier bags are made of oil based plastic, a non-renewable resource, meaning that a bag can take up to 500-1000 years to decompose, and may not ever break-down. Many of these bags end up as litter with 86% of single use carrier bags end-up in landfill[2].
Carrier bags coupled with other non-recyclable rubbish fill up our landfill resulting in situations like the waste site in the small village of Great Heck in North Yorkshire.
Just meters away from the villager’s homes is a 10,000 tonne site piled 50ft high with smouldering rubbish, which residents say omits a horrific smell, making them and their families ill. Children in the nearby school wear masks when playing outside and Sarah Webster who lives just 200 yards away from the tip has been advised by a consultant at hospital to get away from the area when her and her family were hospitalised after being gravelly unwell.
Sarah said: ‘(The tip) smells absolutely vile. It’s toxic and can often smell of burning plastic, which is a known carcinogenic.  I've lived here all my life. Even if I was looking to move now to get away from this I couldn't as it would be impossible to sell the property.’[3]
The tip was run by Wagstaff Total Waste Management Ltd but they have gone into liquidation leaving the rotting rubbish to fester and self-combust, which has been estimated at costing £1million to clear away.
The Environment Agency have made arrests but even with Selby MP Nigel Adams involved who knows how long it will take to eventually clear and at what cost to the residents health.
Conveyancing Data Services Ltd
61-63 Crockhamwell Road
Woodley, Berkshire
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Tuesday, 13 October 2015

What is a HomeBuyers Report? Get the facts on what a HomeBuyer Report includes.







What is a HomeBuyer Report?

The HomeBuyer Report, previously known as the Homebuyers Survey and Valuation (HSV) and often still referred to as a Homebuyers Survey, was introduced in 2009 and is completed within a standard format as laid down by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The HomeBuyer Report is recommended for conventional, newer homes, which are in reasonable condition. It is the most frequently undertaken survey which provides a more in depth report of the condition of the property and will give you professional advice to allow you to make an informed decision of whether to go ahead with buying a property.

The HomeBuyer Report will not detail every single aspect of the building, but it does spotlight urgent matters that have a substantial effect on the value of the property and need attending to or further investigation. It will include all major sections of a property that are visible to the surveyor, so they will not lift up floors or carpets and wiring will not be included.

HomeBuyer Reports are completed by RICS Chartered Surveyors. To get the expert and independent advice a Chartered Surveyor can offer, you can compare quotes from professional and experienced surveyors here at reallymoving.com.
 
If you have a property that is in need of renovation or that you intend to alter, we recommend you commission the more comprehensive Building Survey from a RICS Chartered Surveyor.
 
 


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What is included in a HomeBuyer Report?

The HomeBuyer Report includes details of:
  • A current valuation of the property as for the open market.
  • Background information on the property and location.
  • An estimate for the cost of re-building the property for insurance purpose.
  • An assessment of any damp-proofing, drainage or insulation in the building. Drains are not tested.
  • Condition of the building’s timbers and checking woodworm or rot.
  • Damp test results taken from the walls.
  • Details of urgent problems which should receive specialist attention before signing a contract.
  • Details of major faults in easy to get to parts of the property that may affect its value.
Although a summary of the survey will be present at the front of the report and a reminder of the urgent repairs will be at the end, it is always worth reading the report in full. The HomeBuyer Report is easily understood - written in plain English rather than technical jargon.

Condition Ratings

The RICS HomeBuyer Report has 3 condition ratings to evaluate and describe the condition of the property and how urgently it needs repairing. The conditions are defined by RICS as:
  • Condition Rating 1 – no repair currently needed.
  • Condition Rating 2 – defects that need repairing or replacing but are not considered to be serious or urgent.
  • Condition Rating 3 – defects that are serious and/or need to be repaired, replaced or investigated urgently.
If a surveyor reports findings that may be costly to remedy it can allow for the reopening of negotiations with the house seller on the price or you may wish to rethink your purchase of that property.

By comparing quotes from surveyors for a HomeBuyer Report you can get a professional inspection at a cost-effective price, as the trained eye of a surveyor will spot those potential issues that you would not be aware of. All of the surveyors on reallymoving.com are regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Here is our directory of Chartered Surveyors on reallymoving.com.
 

Comments

  • Sheila Bonnick says...

    posted on 05/12/2013 14:14:58
    This service looks good.

  • Mark Emmingham says...

    posted on 20/01/2014 22:06:01
    Very very useful

  • Peter Collett says...

    posted on 11/10/2014 08:31:26
    I'd be very careful about a Homebuyers Report. Mine failed to notice there was no hot water provision in the house I was buying, owing to an unworking back boiler (despite the report stating hot water was supplied by a back boiler; a quick look would have shown the thing was not working and had not been working for some time), and that a chimney needs demolishing urgently as it is leaking water into the broken back boiler. With this in mind, the valuation was significantly overestimated (local estate agents advise by about £10-15,000). I for one would never use one of these again, except for a very modern property.

  • Frederick & Sheila Wood. says...

    posted on 06/12/2014 20:31:28
    Report very understandable.

  • Mark Hatton says...

    posted on 20/02/2015 15:32:03
    We have now had two homebuyers' reports and neither has been useful. Sounds good in principle, until you realise that a scale of 1-3 is not adequate, and that surveyors rate most things a 3 and tell you that you should get someone to do a separate inspection of the problem. For example, our first one was for a flat with a communal area. They rated the communal area a 3 as they claimed it needed re-decorating. On our most recent, the sealant around the bath was rated a 3 (along with the very dodgy electrics!). THese things make it very difficult to judge what is actually an "urgent" problem. I suggest you get the cheapest option and then pay a decent builder for an hour to come and walk round the house with you!

Let us know what you think

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Tuesday, 29 September 2015

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Tuesday, 1 September 2015

Transparency and Disclosure Requirements in respect of Referral Fees in Conveyancing Transactions






Following the Law Society pushing for a ban on all referral fees for all practice areas, after the ban on referral fees in respect of PI work was approved, the CLC made an application via consultation to the Legal Services Board (in April/May 2013) not to allow an outright ban in terms of referral fees in respect of conveyancing transactions.
The LSB during its research found that by allowing referral fees in conveyancing transactions will be an insignificant risk and there was no real detriment to the client.
However, in approving this, the LSB agreed with CLC in terms of additional disclosure and transparency requirements when dealing with referral fees in conveyancing transactions.
Previously law firms had to advise the client that there was a referral arrangement in place and the amount that would be paid to the referrer/introducer.
However, during its review, the CLC determined that the biggest threat to the consumer interest posed by referral arrangements was the level and timing of information given to consumers.
As a result, the new mandatory transparency and disclosure requirements are that:
  • Agreements with third-party referrers should be in writing and subject to periodic review (as determined by the firm);
  • Clients should be informed in writing of the arrangement’s existence no later than when accepting instructions, or when introducing a client to another person;
  • Clients should be advised they have a choice of provider; and
  • The client should be informed of the nature of the arrangement (including any payment made), with whom it is made, and any impact (including any legal costs they are charged).
So, what does the requirement of advising clients in terms of the fact that they have a choice of service provider actually entail and what obligations does a conveyance have in discharging this onus and fulfilling this requirement-
The Legal Services Board in making their final decision and whilst delivering their final verdict said :-“Clients must be told how they are affected in monetary and other terms by the arrangement”.They will also be told of “any restriction or limitation affecting the introduction” and of their right to shop around.”
So in other words, if a Firm has arrangements in place with a specific introducer/referrer that will say compel the use of a certain providers in relation to that specific conveyancing transaction, for example, to use a specific search company for instance, then that is part of the restrictions/limitations that the client must be made aware of in the CCL, at client instruction stages.
Ultimately, the client must be advised of any limitations/restrictions, in writing, at client take on stage, in terms of any specific limitations/restrictions/arrangements contained in written referral agreements between the Firm and any Introducer/Referrer, which will affect the client, in any manner whatsoever, during their conveyancing transaction.
For example, a conveyancing firm has an arrangement in place via a Panel Manager for the use of specific providers in a conveyancing transaction, eg, to use a specific search company, then the client must be advised that this is the case and by signing and returning the CCL for instance, the client is accepting this arrangement but the client must be told as they must have the choice whether they wish to go along with it or not.ie: the client makes an informed decision. In this way the conveyancer will be complying with the mandatory outcome of “acting in the best interests of the client”
The Conveyancer does not have to give the client various options in terms of different providers (for eg, different search provider companies)- The obligation is just to advise the client in terms of any specific restrictions/limitations that will either directly/indirectly affect the client because of an already existing referral arrangement. Then the client can choose, after being informed if he/she still wants to go with the existing conveyance (having considered the limitations/restrictions) or if he/she wants to choose an alternative service provider.
Licensed conveyancers will now have three months to comply with the new arrangements.
Loschinee Naidoo – Legal Eye Ltd
12 August 2013
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Monday, 3 August 2015

Major Differences Between the US and UK Legal Systems








Major Differences Between the US and UK Legal Systems

April 07, 2014 by Piyali Syam


Attorneys probably already know legal systems in both the U.K. and the U.S. share the same historical common law roots, and are for that reason quite similar. The purpose of this post, though, is to highlight a few of the key divergences in order to give attorneys a sense of how the U.S. and U.K. legal systems differ.

A note on states

Much like the main subdivisions of the U.K. (i.e. England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), the states of the U.S. have their own laws, court systems, and bar associations. In the U.S., federal law and court decisions generally take precedence over these state laws and decisions. Powers not granted to the federal government are instead specifically reserved to the states in the U.S. Constitution.

Court systems

Court systems in both countries are quite similar. Minor criminal offenses and small civil disputes are handled by special magistrate courts tasked with resolving such disputes. In the U.S., these are cases for state courts almost exclusively.
More serious crimes and civil cases in both countries are then subject to a three-court hierarchy. In the U.S., at the federal level, criminal cases and civil cases are not heard by separate courts (at the state level, however, many states do have separate court systems for these two types of cases). Cases begin in lower courts (Crown Court in the U.K., District Court in the U.S.), then move on to Courts of Appeals, and are finally resolved in a single Supreme Court, if necessary.
It is important to note that the U.S. does not have a “Tribunal System” as the U.K. does for certain disputes. There are, however, niche courts for certain types of cases (e.g. bankruptcy court is a separate type of federal court). In the U.S., parties may also agree to submit to binding arbitration or mediation as a means of alternative dispute resolution in certain cases. This often provides a less costly, more streamlined, and less adversarial way to conclude conflicts.

Sources of legal authority

Much like courts in the U.K., courts in the U.S. rely mainly on past judicial opinions as authoritative precedent when resolving litigation. In the U.S., these are often referred to as “opinions” or simply “cases,” while the phrase “law report” has become somewhat archaic.
As readers will also likely know, for legislation, the U.S. has two centralized federal bodies, the House of Representatives and the Senate (together, known as the Congress), which are similar to the Houses of Parliament. Each of the 50 states in the U.S. is afforded two senators, while representatives are allocated proportionally based on each state’s population.
In order to become a law in the U.S., a bill under discussion must be approved by a majority of both congressional bodies, and then signed into law by the President. If the President refuses to sign the bill into law, his or her veto can be overridden by a two-thirds majority vote in Congress.

Roles of lawyers

Aside from differences in nomenclature, the roles of lawyers in both countries are quite similar. The terms “barrister” and “solicitor” are not commonly used in the U.S., and litigators and non-litigators are not separately licensed. Instead, once an attorney is admitted to the bar in a particular state, he or she may generally practice any kind of law. For the sake of clarity: court-going barristers are known as “litigators” in the U.S., and solicitors are called “corporate” or “transactional” attorneys, or are referred to in accordance with their area of specialization (e.g., a health care attorney, a real estate attorney, a family law practitioner, etc.).

Legal education

Unlike in the U.K., there is not a requirement to pursue further courses and apprenticeships beyond law school in the U.S. Instead, all prospective lawyers take a three-year course at an accredited law school and receive a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree upon graduation. Then, students must pass the bar exam in a state of their choosing. After licensure, they may generally practice law in any field of their choosing.
As you can see, the systems are more alike than they are different. Hopefully, this post can serve as a basic guide so that attorneys can get a sense of how the two systems compare.
If you are interested in learning more about U.S. law and how it differs from other countries’ legal systems, consider an LL.M. in U.S. Law.

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