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This post was written by Nic Taggart
“No plan survives first contact with the enemy” is something once written (albeit in German) by Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke. He wasn’t writing about land registration, but he might as well have been.
One of the objectives of the Land Registration Act 2002 was to make the transfer of registered land so slick and seamless that transactions could be completed and electronically registered almost in real time. It practice ...erm... it hasn’t exactly gone according to plan.
These days, there are often delays of between four and nine months - and sometimes much longer - between a conveyancing transaction completing and the Land Register being updated. Without getting technical, during this period – the “registration gap” - the buyer owns the land in equity, but the seller still holds the legal title on trust. Without getting technical, this is a pain in the B Register.
To ease that pain, a working group which included representatives from the Law Society, the City of London Law Society, the PLA and the PBA has devised and drafted some model clauses for insertion into sale contracts, including agreements for lease. These clauses are intended to allow the buyer and the seller to pre-agree who can do what and at whose expense and at whose risk in that period of divided legal and equitable ownership. These model clauses - and the gloriously interesting and extensive accompanying notes - are available for download on the websites of the above-mentioned institutions and are properly explained in an article published by Estates Gazette earlier this week.
I was invited to join the Working Group by Warren Gordon of CMS. As usual, I added the purportedly constructive criticism.
Speaking for myself, I hope that the denizens of Planet Conveyancing may find these model clauses of utility and that the drafting of the clauses withstands first contact ...
