The SRA & The CLC explained

The SRA & the CLC explained When buying a property the legal part of transferring the property to you is called conveyancing , this is because the property is conveyed legally from one person to another. Some of the finer details of conveyancing can be confusing to the layman, but a good conveyancer will explain important issues with your transaction in terms you will understand. There are currently 2 big organisations that look after conveyancing firms. The SRA solicitor’s regulation authority and CLC the council for licensed conveyancers.

Solicitors Regulation Authority
Solicitors Regulation Authority which was called Law Society Regulation Board earlier was established in January 2007 with an objective to ensure professional performance and secure the quality of service and behavior of the solicitors to the clients. Solicitors Regulation Authority is the authority for more than 120,000 solicitors in England and whales.
It is still part of Law Society of England and Wales, but it operates separately keeping its individuality.  As a result of report submitted by Sir David Clement the previous governor of Bank of England, the Law Society entrusted the organization with regulatory powers. The organization plays a significant role in regulating various actions of the solicitors and acts in favor of public interest.
Setting norms for lawyers
The standards for lawyers are set in such a way that it provides confidence for the public in the law system and the solicitors.

• The basic standards to get qualified as a solicitor are kept forward by the SRA.
• The performance of the organizations providing formal training for solicitors are regularly monitored by the SRA.
• The rules of conduct and regulations regarding ethical issues, which affect the professionalism of the solicitors, are drafted by the SRA to ensure the protection of the client’s interests.
• Maintaining the solicitor’s registers.
•  Make the public aware of the duties of solicitors.
• Provide guidance for constant development in solicitor’s career.

Independent Regulations
The main aim of SRA is to protect the interest of the clients seeking legal assistance. Some of the activities of SRA in this regard include:

• SRA checks solicitors and solicitor firms, to ensure that they are abiding by the rules and regulations.
• SRA updates the law enforcement agencies and other regulators to give maximum protection to the rights of the public.
• In case of complaints, the SRA takes necessary disciplinary actions against the solicitors.
• The SRA even closes down legal firms as a part of protecting the interests of clients. They mediate and get the money and documents back to the owners.
• SRA also has a compensatory fund for refunding the amount lost by the clients due to dishonesty of the solicitor or due to some mistakes in the accounts maintained by the solicitors.

SRA is always keen in maintaining the quality of work provided to the public. They constantly bring improvements to their decorum by considering the public opinions, government suggestions, comments from legal professionals and other solicitor groups. The services of SRA is monitored and regulated by the Legal Services Board.

Council for Licensed Conveyancers
Council for Licensed Conveyancers is a legal authority established under the Administration of Justice Act 1985. It has been regulating licensed conveyancers in Wales and England for more than 25 years. Recently the CLC also extended their field of expertise to include other law services like Alternative Business Structures (ABS), probate etc.
The mission of CLC is to protect the public interest, provide consumer choice and also to promote useful competition in the legal market. They implement it by setting entry standards and regulating providers for new Conveyancers in order to deliver premium quality and accessible services.

The main aim of CLC includes:

• Setting standards of educational qualification and other training to start conveyancing practices
• Issuing licenses to qualified individuals to offer conveyancing and probate services and to Alternative Business Structures
• Keeping  register of licensed conveyancers and regulated bodies practicing within the country
• Setting standards to regulate the practice, discipline, conduct and control of certified conveyancers and regulated bodies
• Setting standards to maintain adequate professional insurance cover along with a compensation fund to guard consumers
• Monitoring the project and conduct of controlled bodies
• Providing instruction and advice to controlled bodies to maintain compliance with regulatory demands
• Investigating allegations of misconduct and taking disciplinary actions wherever necessary
• Teaming up key stakeholders in the legal companies to monitor and shape future policy.

As per the Legal Services Act 2007, the CLC has many obligations to the public.  The important functions and obligation include:

• Defending and promoting the general public interest
• holding the constitutional principle regarding the rules of Law
• Civilizing access to law
• Protecting and endorsing the consumer interest
• Promoting healthy competition regarding services rendered by ‘authorised persons’ as defined in the Legal services Act
• Encouraging an impartial, strong, various and efficient legal profession
• Increasing awareness on the citizen’s rights and duties
• Promoting, along with maintaining constancy of, the professional ideas which it considers best to meet those people objectives

Search costs and issues they can cause

Search fees are dictated by a range of things , if you have chosen or the lender has specified official search from the local authority the fee can be between £50 and £250 depending on the local authority ,also different local Authorities charge differently for additional items on top of the standard search. You can review the specific local authorities website to see what their charges are at that time , on Average Drainage reports will cost you on average about £30 to £40 plus VAT , whilst environmental reports cost between £30-35 plus VAT .

Non official private company searches that can be used in 75% of the circumstances mostly range between £75 and £120 for the standard search. Most solicitors will offer a fixed fee bundle that covers (Local Authority, Drainage and Water, Environmental and Chancel reports) the total cost is around £300-£250.

Issues the local searches can uncover.

Some properties are in a flood plain area, this could mean the particular lender you are using might withdraw its offer if the solicitor gets this on the search report as they are obliged to report this to the lender, although rare if you are buying a property close to a river or surrounded by water the risk of flooding could be an issue.

Local land charges register    

This search will normally list the parts of the register which have entries relevant to the property searched , an example if no Financial charges are on the property searched , no mention of the 2 types of financial charges will be mentioned .

Part 1 General Financial Charges

If there are any financial charges that are not known at this time E.G if there is future plans passed to adopt a private road, they could register a charge on the properties that will front onto the road to pay for them to be brought up to standard, it might not have an actual amount but the potential buyers of the property will be given notice by the search then your conveyance will discuss it with you and see if you want to proceed to purchase completion.

Part 2 – Specific financial charges

If the council has already carried out rechargeable works, such as the making up of a road and a house on the route needed boarding up as it has been left empty and the cost is Known, a specific financial charge will be registered.

Part 3 – Planning Charges

In this section, the local land charges search will have a list of any planning applications, this will tell you if they were granted, granted with a condition, pending or refused. It will also include any listed buildings consents, planning enforcement notices or tree preservation orders.

We will be putting up a post about planning permission at a later date.

Miscellaneous Charges

This is where charges that are off no specific category, e.g. smoke control orders (this one states that only smokeless fuels can be burnt in this area) and other non-categorized points will be placed here.  

Fenland way maintenance charges

This is charges to pay for fenland maintenance and only apply to properties situated in the fenland area, hence it is very rare and localized.

Land compensation Charges

These relate to prospective compensation claims under the land compensation act 1973, this covers where land has been acquired under the compulsory purchase procedure.

New towns Charges

This is related to charges covered by the new towns act 1981.

Civil Aviation Charges

This section relates to those charges covered by the civil Aviation act 1982

Opencast coal Charges

This relates to those charges covered by the opencast act 1958, some areas that are near to coal, or other mineral mining operations, and additional mining report might be necessary to satisfy your lender, we will go into these reports on another Post.

Listed buildings

This will reveal if the property is listed and what grade of listing it is, if the property is listed it will restrict the building of extensions unless the extension fits in with the original style of the property. Even putting double glazing can be an issue, unlike standard buildings were planning permission is time barred by the local authority, planning permission for listed buildings local authority action is not time barred. You can be made to remove or put back to original and alterations made without permission at any time they are discovered by the local authority.

Light obstruction notices

These are charges covered by the Rights of Light act 1959. These notices can be registered were a tree or building obstructs light, or blocks the view to neighboring land. Usually when land is developed and sold or sold for development a provision that removes any right of Light that the purchaser may otherwise have. So neighboring retained land could be developed by the purchase in the future.

Land Drainage schemes

This is a charge that covers drainage of an area by the local authority or environment agency, the expense for this could be charged to the property land owners in the vicinity covered in the area of the scheme.

Planning and buildings regulations

This will reveal whether any applications for building regulations approval for any work done to the property have been granted or refused.

Point G deals with certificates of compliance relating to replacement windows, roof lights and Glazed doors. Since 1^st April 2002 it has been required that under building regulations that such work either has to be inspected and certified by building control or else , if the installer is a member of Fensa ( a body set up to regulate the double glazing industry) the installer will self certificate this once the windows have been installed . When work is self certified, the Window Company will inform the local Council of this and will make an entry as per point 1.1g.

Planning designations and Proposals  

Local councils will usually or often have a development plan for the area governed by them. This part will reveal the existence of a plan if there is one, where you can go and inspect the plan if there is one, so any proposals can be check if it will affect your property searched in the future.

Roads

On the search inquiry/Application form the roads that give access to the property should be listed, if none are listed the road at the front of the property will be searched automatically. The information that will be shown will be as below.

Part a) any roads, highways that will be maintainable at public expense.

A road maintainable by public expense (an “adopted highway “) is a road that is public, which gives everyone rights of way. Such a road is maintained by the highways agency from public funds,

 

New roads that will be built, but will not affect properties that front onto it financially 

Sometimes when the highways agency /Department build a road, the properties that front on to it will have no charge to pay. Sometimes roads fronting properties will be private and the local Authority will have no Jurisdiction over that road , or help with the maintenance of that road .If the road is private it will be ok as long as the property in question has right of way over the road to the property by Vehicle or by foot . If there are no rights of way the title will be deemed as defective, this will be need to be remedied. Also a covenant exists, that each property fronting the private road is responsible for an equal share of any costs of up keeping the road.

Most private roads when set up and built by a developer are governed under a management company that is also set up or employed to, run and manage the road. When a property is sold it will be a requirement for the new owner to enter into a contract with the management company that looks after the road.

There is not much that can be done if there are no covenants covering road repair, or sometimes they may not be a covenant that is sufficient to cover road upkeep. This will be reported to the Purchaser and the mortgage company if a mortgage is involved and the purchaser/Lenders instruction should be taken. In some circumstances this could stop the lender wanting to continue to offer finance for the property and the purchase might fail.

Other Matters

Under the environment law each Local Authority is now duty bound to survey all the land in its district or borough and compile a register of areas which are deemed as contaminated. Majority of Local Authorities have not started or even finished compiling its registers for this , if Land that is on the register, is found to be contaminated then the authority has the power to order the land owner to clean up the site at the site owners own cost . The cleanup of contaminated land can run into thousands of pounds so this section of the search should be looked at carefully. You can also carry out a search of the environmental register to establish if the land is likely to be classed as contaminated in the future. In some circumstances it might be possible to carry out a physical site investigation, usually this is done on large scale development sites and costs for this can be very high.

Radon Affected Area

Radon gas is a potentially life threatening gas which rises from the ground, if the necessary barriers are not in place, the gas can enter the property through the ground. A radon affected area is classified by as an area in which more than 1% of the properties that have been surveyed have shown a level of Radon gas that reads above the actionable level. If the local authority search reveals the property to be in an affected area, the purchasers acting solicitor should make enquiries, to see if the seller has ever had the property tested for Radon gas, of if the sell is aware of any radon gas problems. If radon gas has been identified as affecting the property it might not be dangerous but the purchaser should be notified so they can pay for further test or discontinue the purchase of the property.