About Conveyancing

Author: Simon Seaton

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Simon Seaton is a former UK solicitor and a director of Lexsure. He has assisted hundreds of law firms, from small practices to firms ranked in the top 500, with compliance needs spanning SRA requirements, mortgage lender instructions, CQS and anti-money laundering. His AML experience includes developing policies, procedures and systems, and conducting independent audits of firms’ policies, controls and procedures. He has also delivered hundreds of webinars and seminars for lawyers and mortgage lenders on compliance, conveyancing risk and AML. Over the years, Simon has liaised on AML and risk management matters with organisations including UK Finance, the Bank of England, the Metropolitan Police, the National Crime Agency and the Financial Conduct Authority, as well as major mortgage lenders and professional indemnity insurers.

  • Land Registry launches new Flood Risk conveyancing search

    Adopting some of the latest IT, the Land Registry has recently combined its data with the Environment Agency’s flood data to produce its new Flood Risk Indicator.
    Homebuyers can use the Flood Risk Indicator to access clear and reliable information about the possible risk of flooding.

    Customers can purchase Flood Risk Indicator on-line via the Land Registry website. After inputting address details, home buyers will receive a Flood Risk Indicator result in a couple of minutes – stating whether a specific area of land is likely to experience flooding. Customers can instantly download their result, which indicates whether or not their property is affected by a flood plain. This will assist in being able to obtain building insurance. Time will tell whether mortgage lenders will require this search to become a compulsory search within the conveyancing process.

    Flood Risk Indicator raises customers’ awareness of flooding, and helps them plan and prepare as a result of being better informed about the possible risks. Flood Risk Indicator is available now in the Find-a-Property section of the Land Registry website.

  • Advantages of land registration in the UK

    Land Registration under the 2002 Land Registration Act supports land and home ownership by:

    • ensuring state-backed registration, giving greater title security
    • protecting against the possibility of losing title by adverse possession
    • indemnifying home owners under s.103 and Schedule 8, Land Registration Act 2002 against any loss if they are deprived of their state-backed title on a rectification of the register of title for a specific property
    • introducing certainty and simplicity into conveyancing
    • setting out, or referring in the register to, all the rights that benefit and affect the title other than certain overriding interests
    • showing the general extent of the land in each title by means of a title plan
    • providing that capital can circulate freely in the economy by making land readily available as security
    • making large holdings of land and portfolios of charges readily marketable.