Slow Conveyancers Are Putting South London Property Owners at Risk

The conveyancing process is already slow and frustrating, but it's even worse in South London. A recent study by Dutton Gregory found that the average time it takes to complete a conveyancing transaction in South London is 10 weeks. This is significantly longer than the national average of 8 weeks. In my experience a sale takes 100 days to get from under offer to exchange, which is actually 14 weeks!

The long conveyancing process is putting South London property owners at risk. If you're selling your home, you could be waiting months to get the sale through. This could mean that you sit where you are, in uncertainty (or in a temporary property) for longer, or even lose the sale altogether! If you're buying a home in South London, you could be facing the same problems. You could be waiting months to move into your new home, and you could be at risk of financial burden (and others if you have given notice at your rental place) if the sale falls through.

The slow conveyancing process is a major problem for South London property owners. It's time for the government to take action to speed up the process and protect property owners. What can you do to protect yourself? There are a few things you can do to protect yourself from the slow conveyancing process: Choose a reputable conveyancing solicitor. A good solicitor will be able to keep you informed of the progress of the sale and help to speed up the process. Is the delay on your side or the buyer's side? Are they raising silly enquiries? And always be mindful that you have the right to pull our of the sale if the conveyancing process is taking too long.

If you want to know more about getting a sale through successfully just drop me a line! Curious about rental or sales value? Try my online valuation tool here.

The sneaky update the government didn't want you to know about!

For those of you who are keen, hands-on landlords you will no doubt be aware of the need to serve your tenants with a plethora of government approved bumf to make sure that you are acting in accordance with the law.

These things include:

• Valid gas safety certificate
• EPC
• Deposit information leaflet
• Deposit protection Certificate
• Tenancy Agreement
• and of course the "How to Rent" booklet published by the government

Now it's the last item on that list which is key today. It's of paramount importance that you serve THE MOST RECENT ONE at the time of you issuing the agreement. Failure to do so will cause lightning to strike and all manner of other things to happen, but most pertinently you will lose your right to serve a section 21 notice. Now when did these changes occur you ask? Well, the current published version at  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-rent indicates that the version is dated May 2019. However, since then there have been changes made, most recent one being 10 days ago. So landlord simply referring to that document, seeing that it is still dated May, could be forgiven for thinking they acted correctly if they created a tenancy between May and now (August).

However the details are located in the version history. One can see the version history below the download link and actually reads:

So you can see there has been two updates, one in June and one on the 7th of August, in both of which the date on the actual booklet has not been updated. Naturally as to whether a judge would deem a landlord to have acted "fair and reasonable and within the spirit of the law" by serving the 31 May version up until now is yet to be tested.

But let's not take that chance. If you are doing your own paperwork always refer to the webpage and download the currently published version, and don't rely on downloaded documents on your computer - they might have just sneakily been changed, materially or otherwise!

If you are looking for help with your property investments please feel free to reach out to me via email. Also, if you are interested in more information on property letting and investments do head over to my youtube channel.

Do you want to be involved with more property transactions in Brixton and Clapham in 2016? Get yourself down to PIN!

So... what are your plans for the New Year? Let's save the Merry Christmases, promises to all to hit the gym and eat less pies for another day. Let's talk property.

Whether you are looking for JV partners, deal sourcers to find your next deal or a broker to speak to regarding creative finance strategies - just come down to the next Property Investor Network meeting in Wimbledon. I'll be there giving the monthly lettings update and I can introduce you to some colleagues whose experience you may benefit from. The venue is:

Antoinette Hotel Wimbledon
249-263 The Broadway
Wimbledon
London
SW19 1SD

Come down and we'll talk property, strategy and about your pending success for 2016. But remember, the first step is yours. I have thousands of readers and I've only seen a handful of you at the PIN. So if you are serious about making some gains in property in the New Year let's agree to meet down in Wimbledon first Tuesday of the New Year.


Make sure you log on at www.wimbledonpin.co.uk/ and register to get your free entry using "xandermatthew" as the discount code on the checkout. Normally £20, for you - free.

As always, run those deals by me -jeroen@claphampropertyblog.com - and I'll give you my honest opinion as to whether they're good, bad, ugly, whatever. See you in the new year!

So…. We’re deregulated now!

Tenancy deposits, and the adherence to the rules thereof, remains a headline topic these days. It can be a minefield! Anyone who’s heard someone talk sensibly will have heard of the “Superstrike vs Rodrigues” Case. What? Ah yes, that one…

In a nutshell if the tenancy started before April 2007 (when all these laws came into force) so the deposit wasn't protected. What happened was the court ruled the deposit should have been protected when the tenancy renewed. The court had, at the time, interpreted this as a new tenancy. Rightly or wrongly at the time, this had massive implications on every tenancy that was holding over or renewed by means of fixed term extension in the whole country! Every landlord for every running tenancy would have had to reserve the “prescribed information” (set of particulars to confirm certain details like who the landlord is and where the deposit is kept etc) upon each renewal. So every 6 or 12 months, however long the extension was for, or upon the fixed term lapsing and it becoming a statutory periodic tenancy.

“So what?” I hear you thinking… well here’s what – if you didn’t comply with these regulations to reserve the prescribed information bits and pieces you wouldn’t be able to serve S21 notice on the tenants (so you can’t make them move out). What’s worse is the tenants could sue mr. landlord for 3x the deposit amount because, even if it was registered correctly at the time of the tenancy starting, if the prescribed information wasn’t reserved it all went out the window…

"NIGHTMARE" I hear you say... Thank goodness for the Deregulation Act 2015 which fixes all these things, and then some. Read all 250plus pages of glory here if you like: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/20/pdfs/ukpga_20150020_en.pdf. To be fair only 20 points out of the 116 relate to property, but that’s still a lot to take in.

Or allow me to summarise:

• New Section 21 Notice - There will be a new prescribed notice available from this date onwards.  You will be able to download it from the Court website.
• If there is no Energy Performance Certificate or valid Gas Safety Certificate on the property, a landlord will not be able to serve a Section 21 Notice until this is rectified.  
• To prevent a landlord evicting a tenant who has complained about the condition/disrepair of the property, a landlord will no longer be able to serve a section 21 notice if the tenant has previously complained about the state of repair.
• Landlords are not under obligation to re-serve the PI nor re-register the deposit upon every renewal of tenancy or change from fixed term to statutory periodic at present.

So, all in all good changes for good landlords!

Remember if you want to talk property or run a new purchase by me please do so: I’m on 020 3637 4474 or email: jeroen@claphampropertyblog.com.