Property Legal has recently invested in the Proclaim case management system. This is an important investment as it will result in several major benefits to the firm.

Firstly, it will be possible to track cases on the system as they develop. Each step in a transaction will be logged and will then be viewable to anybody in the firm logging onto Proclaim. This will improve the flow of information to clients as each fee earner’s assistant will be able to answer calls from clients, thus freeing them up to spend more time on core legal work. Reception staff will be able to respond to client queries by accessing the system, which will improve efficiency across the firm.

Secondly, reports on title will be made easier for fee earners to write as a sophisticated system of precedents has been devised which will save time in terms of manually typing up references to provisions from documents. Also, administrative time spent on scanning in attachments to reports on title will be saved as reports will refer to the relevant provisions within the body of each report and not on separate annexures.

When post and emails arrive each day, they will be logged onto the system and then diary reminders will be set up for fee earners to carry out routine tasks and to chase outstanding information. This will save time in terms of fee earners having to manually go through files and extensive email chains which are currently stored on their own individual hard drives in order to retrieve information and chase important deadlines.

Banks of precedents will be created which will be easily accessible for e.g. client care letters which will save significant amounts of time. Clients’ names and details will be pre-inserted into these documents, saving much time spent in copy-typing. Drafting of completion statements and bills will also be made much easier and less time-consuming due to both the standardisation of these documents across the firm and the pre-insertion of clients’ financial data. It is important to stress that the system will only be as good as the information that is entered into it, therefore the above time saving is dependent on the correct inputting of data in the first place.

An important aspect of the new case management system will be the linking in of our Accounts systems onto Proclaim, resulting in the firm being able to more easily view financial information in respect of each transaction on screen. This will result in more time savings as this data will be more readily accessible to fee earners and assistants, which will ease the progress of each transaction on completion day.

This is an exciting time for the firm as the new system beds in and the above time savings start to be realised. Time savings will start to filter through in the coming weeks and months as more of our clients reap the benefits of our powerful new system.

Please do get in touch if you have any queries on the operation of Proclaim or would like further detail on any aspect of the above.

Employers have faced a 52% rise in the number of employment claims in the past year.  This is due to the ease with which Claimants can lodge a claim at the Tribunal.  A tribunal claim can be filled in and submitted online within a matter of minutes.  There is also no fee for lodging the claim at the tribunal and so there is nothing to stop employees or ex-employees having a go at bringing a claim.

It is very important that the employer responds to the Claim within the time limits imposed.  If the employer does not reply in the correct way then the tribunal can issue a judgment without hearing anything from the employer.  It is extremely important that the response form, or ET3, is correctly drafted and deals with all the allegations.  Using a solicitor to draft the response means that the correct law will be quoted and the employee put on notice that you are dealing with the claim properly.  Many employers can cause themselves great difficulties at the Tribunal as a result of poorly drafted response forms.

The most important thing to remember is to get advice early.  Many problems can be resolved and avoided by having correct procedures and dealing with work place problems quickly and effectively.

There is an enormous difference between a bad and good Conveyancing Solicitor.

The following simple tips will help you make a decision you won’t regret.

The Conveyancing process in the UK can be a painfully slow process leaving property buyers and sellers wondering what, if anything, is going on.

Some Conveyancers are almost Dickensian in their approach and others can seem faceless often hiding behind IT systems (how many have you seen offering online case tracking? Wouldn’t you rather talk to a human?), and some can be a mix of both.

Thankfully there are many highly skilled Conveyancers ay Property Legal offering a personal and pro-active service and nearly all clients find that their transaction goes smoothly, allowing for factors beyond his or her influence of course.

Should you choose the Cheapest Conveyancing Quote?

Many of the clients that we speak to will often simply go for the Cheapest Conveyancing Quote that they can find, and fail to consider the fact that you could choose an expensive quote and still receive a poor service.

You might get lucky and get a perfectly good service at a bargain price but whether you are buying or selling a home, this is probably your biggest asset so it really can pay you to do a little research before you choose your conveyancing solicitor.  If you can get it right, then you can:

• See your transaction complete in minimal time.
• Increase the probability of your house sale or purchase going through.
• Avoid costly mistakes
• Save yourself hours sitting on hold waiting to speak to someone in a call centre.

The following advice will help you select the right Conveyancing Solicitor:

• Instructing a conveyancer on-line is all very 21st century and perfectly reasonable but why not call the solicitor before you instruct.  If you can’t get through to anyone when they are in sales mode, ask yourself what the service will be like once you have placed the order. At Property Legal, we use the very latest in case management systems but still maintain the personal touch.
• Better still, call the conveyancer and leave a message.  If it takes them 2 days to return your call it is unlikely they will be very proactive when it comes to pushing your transaction through.   Good Conveyancers cannot over communicate. They know that one phone call can save them 10 incoming calls from clients and estate agents constantly chasing for updates. At Property Legal, the clients will find that our Terms and Conditions state all phones calls will be returned within 24 hours.

Property Legal solicitors are keen to make a move for more legal work from the Italian community.

Property Legal solicitors have Italian speaking lawyers who can assist with any property, litigation or employment disputes. We find that a lot of the Italian community wish to speak and communicate with their solicitors in their mother tongue.

Adam Pavey who heads up the Italian legal sector represents and continues to represent Italian based business that have business dealings in the UK with their litigation requirements. Adam is keen to do more jurisdictional work with the Italian business community and as an extremely pro-active member of the Manchester Law Society he hopes to encourage other likeminded professionals to do the same. Adam feels as an Italian speaking UK qualified lawyer that he can really assist the Italian business community based both in Italy and the UK.

Please feel free to call one of our property or litigation solicitors today with any of your cross jurisdictional UK-Italian requirements.

A recent survey has revealed that property prices are more affordable than any time since 2003.

The average price paid by a first time buyer in November 2011 was affordable for buyers on average wages in 44% of all local authorities.  This is a huge improvement on figures from the height of the market in 2007 where the figure was only 5% and compares favourably with 2010 as the price paid is down by 3%.

The situation appear rosier for first time buyers in the north where the average deposit is 15% whereas Londoners will find themselves paying as much as 25%.

However, the number of first time is still falling and was down to a record low in 2011.  This is thought to be because more stringent lending criteria set by the lenders.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders estimates that 64% of first time buyers will require financial assistance from family which is believed to be double the amount 5-6 years ago

Another stubbing block for buyers this year will be the return of stamp duty for first time buyers.  The government has confirmed that they do not intend to extend exemption for those paying between £125,000.00 and £250,000.00 beyond 24^th March 2012.  This should give an initial boost the first time market in the first quarter of the year but figures are expected to fall away afterwards.

It’s a reasonably common occurrence. You’ve checked with the Estate Agent, and the seller, and you’re sure that 22 Cherry Tree Lane is a freehold property, and when you receive the Property Report from your solicitors, it is also confirmed there. The more you read, though, the more confusing the situation becomes. Yes, 22 Cherry Tree Lane (to use a fictional example) is freehold, but the deeds contain a whole host of provisions and clauses and restrictions. Some of these can date back hundreds of years and, oftentimes, prohibit you from doing things that you didn’t have any intention of doing, such as converting your house into a tannery or brick factory. But some deeds will prohibit you from, for example, parking a caravan at the front of the property, or requiring you to seek the permission of the original developer many years after the last builder drove away. And sometimes you can even be asked to repair the Chancel of a local church, irrespective of whether you ever actually attend. Not to mention a number of exceedingly rare and equally ancient obligations such as manorial rights.

So, you may ask, what is going on? You wanted a freehold property, and yet here is a list of covenants that tell you what you can and can’t do to the property, irrespective of wider planning laws and local authority regulations. The reasons for this are twofold, depending upon the right in question:

1. Manorial Rights, Chancel Repair Liability. These are ancient rights which a property has inherited over the century. At the moment, some of these rights have not yet been formalised, but as of October next year, Chancel Liabilities will have to be noted on the Register (the modern version of the Title Deeds) so at least this will be clear from the outset. Since the English Legal System has endured for centuries without a significant break, these rights (which would have been lost in countries such as France that have had a revolution) continue to remain and continue to be enforceable
2. With regards to more recent covenants, it’s worth bearing in mind that, when selling land, you are entitled to make such restrictions yourself if you desire. Clearly, if you decided to create an obligation to repair a local church, then you would have to expect that the desirability of your property would be severely affected.

This means that the seller of a property, whether from 1846, 1946 or 2006, can stipulate how they want the property to be used. In order to be assured of the correct position (and we haven’t even begun to discuss indemnity insurance or missing deeds) then it’s important to employ a firm that deals with such properties everyday and is an expert on such things. Such a firm like Property Legal.

Where land is owned by two or more people, they each have a simultaneous interest in the land and are known as “co-owners”.

There are two ways in which co-owners may hold property:

• As joint tenants – Under a joint tenancy, each tenant has an indivisible share in the property and all of the tenants are equally entitled to the whole property.
• As tenants in common – If co-owners hold the property as tenants in common, they each have a distinct beneficial share in the property. It is advisable for the co-owners to indicate expressly the proportions in which they hold the property, rather than leaving this to be implied from the circumstances and the financial contributions made by each co-owner. A Declaration of Trust can be used to demonstrate how the property is held by the different co-owners.

A declaration of trust is a legal agreement between the joint owners of property. It may include several pieces of information, such as the amount each owner contributed towards the purchase price, their respective ownership shares, and what happens if someone dies or wants to move out or there is a dispute about how to develop the property.

When is it advised to have a declaration of trust?

If you are buying a home with your partner or friend, and you are purchasing the property as tenants-in-common, then you should speak to your solicitor and get a deed of trust drawn up. It may not be exactly romantic, but it could spare you a lot of pain if you ever decide to go your separate ways.

What are the benefits of having a declaration of trust?

If one of you has contributed more money towards buying the property, you may decide that it is fairer to reflect this in your share of the property for example – where one owner paid 30% towards the purchase price and the other paid 70%, each party to the transaction will hold a fiscally apportioned interest in the property according to their contribution.

In addition, if the property is owned as a tenancy-in-common and one of you dies, that share will pass in accordance with the terms of the deceased’s will (or under the rules of intestacy, if they don’t have a will). This means that the surviving joint owner of the property will have no control over who owns and lives in the co-owner’s part of the property. A deed of trust can be drafted to avoid this problem by stipulating exactly what should happen to the property if a joint owner dies.

If you have any questions or concerns about your contribution to a purchase, or think that you might benefit from a Declaration of Trust, you are more than welcome to contact the solicitor dealing with your file. They will be very happy to assist you and will be able to answer any queries you might have.

Here at Property legal we take Money Laundering very seriously.

Money laundering is widely defined in the UK. In effect any handling or involvement with any proceeds of any crime (or monies or assets representing the proceeds of crime) can be a money laundering offence. An offender’s possession of the proceeds of his own crime falls within the UK definition of money laundering. The definition also covers activities which would fall within the traditional definition of money laundering as a process by which proceeds of crime are concealed or disguised so that they may be made to appear to be of legitimate origin.

Therefore at Property Legal we carry out various searches on all of our Clients to ensure there is no Criminal activity in regard to Money Laundering within our firm.

Upon instructing Property Legal to act for them, All of our Clients are requested to provide proof of identification and Proof of Funds to enable us to carry out our Anti Money Laundering Searches.