Disbursements continued (2)
Environmental search
An
environmental search is carried out by solicitors with an agency
that provides such searches. The law does not
currently require local authorities to keep a
register of contaminated land. An environmental
search will check whether the land upon which the
property is built has been contaminated. New
properties are often built upon old landfill sites
or upon sites that were previously used for
commercial purposes. It is now a legal requirement
that developers survey land intended for building to
ensure it has not been contaminated. If it has been
contaminated the developer must decontaminate the
land before building upon it. However, this was not
always the case and some property is built on land
that is contaminated. A solicitors environmental search will
also check whether the property is affected by
flooding or other environmental risks or hazard
(such as factories or commercial outlets nearby).
You can currently obtain a free mini environmental
search (which cannot be used for legal purposes)
from
www.homecheck.co.uk.
Mining
searches
There are various
types of mining carried out in the UK today. These
include coal, chalk and tin. Solicitors will
check the relevant directory if the property you wish to buy is in a mining
area and if so will carry out a conveyancing search to ensure
that the property has not been/will not be adversely
affected by the mining activities.
Chancel repair search/check
In the past when
the Church sold off or gifted land they sometimes
required the new owner to pay towards the upkeep of
the church or its lands. Some property is still
subject to this liability. There was a recent case
where one unsuspecting couple were forced to pay
hundreds of thousands of pounds to the church
because their property was subject to this
liability. If you solicitor believes that the
property you wish to buy may be subject to this
liability they will carry out a chancel repair
search/check.
Commons registration search
Some land was
formerly ‘common’ land. This means that the public
have rights to pass over it and occasionally to
graze sheep and cattle, gather wood etc. If your
solicitor suspects that the property you wish to buy
may have been registered as ‘common land’ they will
carry out a commons registration search. This search
is typical upon properties that front a village
green or common land.
Land Registry search
When you buy,
transfer or mortgage a property solicitors will
search the
Land Registry to check that no one has
registered a claim or a right in the property since
the Official copies were issued by the Land
Registry. This ensures that you do not buy a
property that has a financial charge or other right
registered against it.
Land Charges search (also known
as a bankruptcy search)
Items
that may be listed as
disbursements which are not
genuine
disbursements
(hidden extra solicitors fees to watch out for)
-
Legal fees for acting for a
mortgage lender.
Unless your
lender has appointed their own solicitor (i.e. a
different solicitor to the one you are using)
the fee charged for acting for a mortgage lender
will be paid to your solicitor and should
therefore be shown as part of their total
conveyancing fee. This fee may be charged
separately by your solicitor on a purchase or a
remortgage and even for dealing with repayment
of a mortgage on your sale.
(CMS
do not charge this fee)
-
Solicitors indemnity insurance.
By law all solicitors must carry
indemnity insurance of at least £1 million
pounds to protect their clients against that
solicitor’s negligence or fraud. Some firms try
to pass the cost of this insurance on to their
clients. (CMS do not
charge this fee)
-
Petty disbursements.
This is a notional charge for telephone calls,
photocopying, faxes and postage. In fact it
forms part of the solicitor’s fee for the
conveyancing and should be included in the total
conveyancing fee quoted by the solicitor.
(CMS do not charge this
fee)
-
File storage.
Solicitors are
obliged to store your file for six years and
some store for at least twelve (as recommended
by the Law Society). Some solicitors seek to
charge you for the storage of your file.
(CMS do not
charge this fee)
-
Search packages.
Some firms
charge inflated prices for a search package. We
have seen the price of search packages quoted at
up to £100 more than the actual cost of the
package. The solicitor collects the fee for the
package, pays for the searches and keeps the
difference as conveyancing fees.
(CMS solicitors
charge only the actual cost price of searches)
CMS Guarantee to better
any other genuine quotation with their directory of
solicitors
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