Conveyancing: How to tackle property fraud

Property fraud is on the up, and recent cases highlight the importance of vigilance by solicitors, especially when dealing with vulnerable clients. Jayne Elkins and Karen McGinley investigate ‘Generally, there is less risk of fraud with registered land than with unregistered property, as although the registers are open, there are various steps a registered proprietor …
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Planning Update: What’s on the horizon in 2015?

With an election looming and the political parties gearing up, Lisa Tye looks at what the main players are saying about planning and what we can expect on 8 May and beyond ‘All of the political parties accept that there is a housing crisis but there is no consensus on how it should be addressed.’ …
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Assignment: To sign is not to assign

Nikolas Ireland considers the importance of execution formalities on assignment in the context of a recent case ‘While the claimant landlord was successful in the Lankester case, the way in which they dealt with the proposed assignee is not to be recommended as it allowed the defendants to seek to dispute liability.’If there is one …
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Construction Focus: Challenging arbitration awards

John Starr reviews the courts’ stance on such challenges, and considers the case law ‘Appeals under s69 are not as common as challenges under ss67 and 68 and are even less likely to succeed.’ No one likes to lose, which is why so many awards and decisions are challenged. This column has, on several occasions, …
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Boundary Disputes: How effective are current resolution methods?

Helena Davies and Pauline Lam explore the current state of the law on boundary disputes and look at the recent findings of a scoping study ‘Judges have become increasingly vociferous about neighbour/boundary disputes; in particular, commenting that they are time-consuming and can be hugely disproportionate from a costs perspective.’ Boundary disputes arise on all types …
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Surveyors: The scope and nature of duties owed

Alexandra Anderson examines recent case law concerning a surveyor’s duty of care ‘When looking at the question of whether there is a duty of care, it is important to consider the exact nature of the duty that is claimed and whether the losses claimed flow from any breach of that duty.’Since the property crash in …
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Rights To Light: A trick of the light

What is and what is not a consent under s3 of the Prescription Act 1832 can be a tricky question to answer, as Andrew Francis finds out ‘Quite apart from whether the provision is a consent within s3, another commonly encountered issue is whether the provision can bind, or benefit, successors in title.’ Section 3 …
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Assets Of Community Value: Protection for community pubs

Antonia Murillo and Sara Wex outline the current status of community pubs ‘The position of the government is that a blanket protection for every single public house in the country would not be appropriate, as that would have the effect of also protecting pubs that for various reasons are no longer viable.’The government was urged …
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