tm blog

Ransom strip causes headaches for property developers in Essex, amid 5 years of legal wrangling. Image source: Daily Mail | Copyright Cascade News

Q&A: Why does your client need a Highways Search?

The simple answer is that highways can be really complicated. There are lots of potential pitfalls out there to trip people up. For starters, there is the General Boundary Rule, and then the Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook (CML) have expectations that, in addition to ‘usual and necessary searches’, the ‘boundary must be clearly defined.’ It doesn’t stop there, but these two do present solicitors with complications that need to be resolved.

Q&A: What if I don't order one - what are the risks to my client?

Put simply, imagine that you have bought a property but you can't access it or have to pay extra to buy another piece of land in order to access it. Far from ideal for many reasons.

We’ve all probably heard about homeowners who cannot access their home because of a ransom strip and the lengthy problems that they can cause, but imagine just how catastrophic this could be for a developer or for a commercial transaction.

Q&A: Are there any cases in which a Highways search would have been useful?

There are a few well-known cases which relate to highways, and the most famous or often cited cases are:

1. Stokes and Cambridge (1961) which established the value of ransom strips at 1/3 of the value they create; and

2. Gooden vs Northamptonshire CC (2001) where a developer had to redesign the layout of the estate as access to a certain road was denied.

There are plenty of others, but I will leave it there. 

Q&A: Does the Highways search do anything else?

Aside from answering the questions, it also gives you certainty about access, or time to resolve any issues that may be highlighted. For these reasons, it is always best to conduct the search at the start of the transaction when all the other searches are ordered.

For example, you might need to get defective title insurance or negotiate a right of way with the person who owns the land between your plot and the highway, and all of this can take time, so it makes sense to give yourself as much time as possible to do this.

Q&A: Who provides highways searches?

As with the majority of searches on tmconvey and tmconnect, there are a variety of products to choose from, so here is a quick summary of the highways searches currently available:

• Local Authority highways enquiry (HighwaysLA)

The ‘Local Authority highways enquiry’ raises the following questions. Please note, the search result will depend on the information provided by the relevant Local Authority.

1. Can you confirm that the Property immediately abuts onto a publicly maintainable highway and there is no intervening land between the Property and the public highway (if there is, is it within the Property's ownership and what is its status?)

2. Are there any road improvements or widening schemes in the area or any road closure orders affecting roads around the property.

3. Can you confirm that there are no public footpaths on or over the property?

4. Is there any information available regarding any future improvements or developments which may affect traffic flow around the land in question?

• Local Authority Highways Lite (HighwaysRA)

A less comprehensive alternative to the ‘Local Authority highways enquiry’, only 2 questions are raised in the ‘Local Authority Highways Lite’ search. Please note, the search result will depend on the information provided by the relevant Local Authority.

1. A copy of your highway records showing which roads are maintained at public expense and which are not?

2. A copy of your plan showing the extent of the highways and adopted roads in relation to the property and the plan submitted to you?

• Highway search standard with opinion Commercial (PVHwayOC) 

This search asks the same questions as ‘Local Authority highways enquiry’ – as seen above. In addition, with a green, amber, red professional opinion based on the local authority responses in proximity to the property, so potential issues can be quickly identified within the report.

• Highway search standard with opinion Residential (PVHwayOR)

This search asks the same questions as ‘Local Authority highways enquiry’ – as seen above. In addition, with a green, amber, red professional opinion based on the local authority responses in proximity to the property, so potential issues can be quickly identified within the report.

• Argyll Site Solutions Highways Report

Designed for residential and commercial conveyancing transactions – up to 15 hectares – the Argyll Site Solutions Highways Report provides information relating to:

• Road Adoption Status

• Footpath Adoption Status

• Verge Adoption Status

• Traffic Schemes & Orders

• Scheduled Roadworks

• Existing Rights of Way

• Proposed or Amended

• Rights of Way

You can see a sample report here and read more about the report here.

Q&A: How can I order a highways report?

All of the above-mentioned searches are available to order on tmconvey and tmconnect. 

In the first instance, you can also take a quick look on tm’s mapping data layers to flag any potential issues while waiting for the results to be returned, which can better help manage client expectations in advance, as Penelope Meadows, Solicitor, LSC Finance Ltd comments (November 2020):

“tm’s data layers are amazing! Whilst we appreciate that a full highways search is always advisable, being able to check the highways layer and see at first glance whether there may be any issues in this regard allows you to manage your clients expectations at a much earlier stage of the transaction.”

For more information please get in touch with your Client Relationship Manager or our Client Services team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk

PlanVal mining alerts are now available on tmconvey. 

The new MiningCheck Alerts assess a property against a wealth of data to alert conveyancing solicitors and their clients to the materials that have been mined on the land; both recently and historically. 

The new MiningCheck Alerts follow the recent release of two new mining products in November, also available to order on tmconvey:

• PlanVal Coal Mining Search with Professional Opinion

• PlanVal Non-Coal Mining Search with Professional Opinion

Click here for more information

The new MiningCheck Alerts enable conveyancing solicitors to advise their clients as to whether it is necessary for them to order a complete Coal Mining Search or Non-Coal Mining Search before proceeding with their purchase. 

Isn’t mining just a risk in Cornwall and the North East?

According to PlanVal data, there are mining risk areas in every county in England and Wales; with 34% of land being in a mining risk area. 

Mining risks are not just a problem for home movers in the North and the Midlands (coal), or in Cornwall (tin), as 63 minerals have been mined, quarried or extracted across England and Wales.  

These new MiningCheck Alerts enable solicitors to confidently advise whether a client’s property is situated in a mining risk area; even when it isn’t overtly obvious. 

If you have any questions, please talk to your Account Manager for more information, or contact Helpdesk on 0844 249 9200 or helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk.

PlanVal have released two new mining products, which are now available to order on tmconvey:

    > PlanVal Coal Mining Search with Professional Opinion

    > PlanVal Non-Coal Mining Search with Professional Opinion

These products are being added to the range of mining products on tmconvey in replacement of PlanVal’s current range of mining products, and are both accepted by Banks and Building Societies.

These checks are also part of PlanVal's branded products, combining data with a professional recommendation from Mining Searches UK, backed by Professional Indemnity Insurance cover.

PlanVal Coal Mining Search with Professional Opinion

The standardised format of the search puts a colour coded ‘Passed’ or ‘Further Action Required’ result on the front cover.  There follows a Professional Opinion based on definitive Official data provided by The Coal Authority, facilitating decision making.

This Coal Mining Search also utilises enhanced datasets from Third Party sources in order to provide an assessment of risk of mine related settlement or subsidence.  The report considers information in order to answer questions as set out in CON29M. Each search includes a professional interpretation covered by £10m of professional indemnity insurance. 

The search returns a rating of: "Passed" or "Further Action", together with opinion details and where necessary, further action required.  Input mapping is supplemented by an Ordnance Survey MasterMap ‘Location Plan’ and a large scale ‘Mining Activity Plan’ for clarity and accuracy. 

PlanVal Non-Coal Mining Search with Professional Opinion.

The standardised format of the search puts a colour coded ‘Passed’ or ‘Further Action Required’ result on the front cover.  There follows a Professional Opinion based on data on 60+ different mineral types (excluding Coal), facilitating decision making.

This Non-Coal Mining Search utilises datasets from both Official and Third Party sources in order to provide an assessment of risk of mine related settlement or subsidence.  Where a property lies within a risk area for either Cheshire Brine or British Gypsum, the appropriate official search is purchased. The PlanVal report considers this combined information to produce a clear opinion. Each search includes a professional interpretation covered by £10m of professional indemnity insurance. 

The search returns a rating of: "Passed" or "Further Action", together with opinion details and where necessary, further action required.  Input mapping is supplemented by an Ordnance Survey MasterMap ‘Location Plan’ and a large scale ‘Mining Activity Plan’ for enhanced clarity and accuracy. 

Note - The standard disbursement is added in the small % of cases where a Cheshire Brine or British Gypsum report is included.

After the Chancellor George Osborne announced a boost to housing in his Autumn Statement 2015, tmgroup's Nick Dyoss reports on whether or not the news will have any impact on conveyancers offering planning and development information to their clients.

In his Autumn Statement of 2015 the Chancellor announced a boost to housing including the release of enough Government-held land to build 160,000 new homes. At the same time the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Brandon Lewis MP, is taking a new Bill through Parliament to free up and speed up the planning process. And then, on the 4th January 2016, the Prime Minister announced that the government is to step in and directly commission thousands of new affordable homes. All-in-all a pretty potent cocktail for a surge in planning submissions and neighbourhood change.

On the back of the Autumn Statement tmgroup asked customers in December, “After the Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to invest billions in new homes in the Autumn Statement, will this have any impact on whether you recommend planning and development information to your conveyancing clients?” The results are as follows:

Interestingly the percentage of solicitors recommending a planning search on the back on the Autumn Statement has increased by 50% to around 1 in 3. A significant jump.

But what of the majority?

I suspect that in the case of the 70%, many of the respondents do offer planning searches as an option in their client care letters and leave it up to the homebuyer to decide.

So is it enough to leave the option of a planning search up to the purchasers? Not an easy one to properly debate fully in this blog but I suspect that most homebuyers have no idea of the property-specific nature of the Seller’s Property Information Form (SPIF) or local search; after all it is ‘local’ isn’t it?

Many searches such as flood, coal and infrastructure now have alerts when a solicitor is ordering searches on a property so why not planning? Actually there is one available but unless the property in question is in a remote area you will get an alert in around 80-90% of cases, even if you limit the alert to a 50m radius, which may well desensitise conveyancers to the value of the alert.

Additionally in the summer we had the Thorp v Abbotts case where a claim that the sellers of the property had submitted fraudulent replies in the SPIF was found in favour of the seller. This was despite the fact that the seller was aware of a large scale development near the property but excluded this from the SPIF.

To complicate this picture further is that planning is a funny area in terms of how it affects people: For some the same planning application can either be positive, opening up new opportunities; or a negative, blighting their enjoyment of their property. Planning also has the ability to strike quickly and change a neighbourhood or property forever. In that regard it could be seen in a similar context to the speed at which flooding or ground instability can blight and change an area.

To help there are a wide range of searches available to suit both tastes and budgets and they are rapidly produced which gives the homebuyer and solicitor plenty of time to consider the contents and make further enquiries if necessary. tmgroup, in addition to the familiar planning reports from Groundsure and Landmark, offer a range of fully interpreted planning reports for residential and commercial transactions from PlanVal and DevAssess.

For more information on any of these planning reports or to organise an in-house planning CPD please contact us on 0844 249 9200 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk

Over the last few weeks two notable planning cases have come to pass. In June, the case involving Orientfield Holdings Ltd. and Bird & Bird hit the headlines whilst, even more recently, the Thorp v Abbotts case also has significant implications for conveyancers, despite having not been subject to as much intense public scrutiny.

The crux of the latter case rested upon a claim that the sellers of the property had submitted fraudulent replies in the Seller’s Property Information Form (SPIF).

Shortly after the buyers (Thorp) moved in they became aware of a large-scale development in the area but, crucially, the sellers (Abbotts) were also aware of it too and had failed to mention it in the SPIF.

Some months later, the buyers commenced legal proceedings against the sellers for damages with regard to fraudulent misrepresentation.

However, the Court ruled in favour of the defendant.

Why?

Well, aside from the widely-held principle of caveat emptor (buyer beware), the Court considered that the terms ‘affecting’ and ‘communication’ from the SPIF should be given a ‘relatively confined’ interpretation in the favour of the seller.

To then further complicate the picture, in summary of the Orientfield Holdings Limited case, Judge Pelling QC ruled that:

“It is for the client to judge the impact of the material that may be relevant, not the solicitor.”

This summary would suggest that conveyancers need to make sure their clients have access to comprehensive information to make an informed purchasing decision.

Moreover, George Osbourne’s announcement of the new housing reforms on the 10th July 2015, in addition to the unveiling of a host of new planning reform measures designed to bolster the housebuilding process, could have further repercussions for conveyancers.

The new proposals allow automatic planning permission to be granted on many brownfield sites in England, with the knock-on effect that major projects in the housing industry could be fast tracked and rules on extensions in London relaxed. All of which points to a much busier environment outside of the limits of the information in the SPIF.

A simple solution which provides the information that a purchaser needs (but the seller does not have to supply) is a planning search. Easily available, not overly expensive and returned in a matter of hours for both residential and commercial transactions.

But these reports can sometimes run to one hundred pages in urban areas with a large amount of information which may be unfamiliar to the reader.

So how can the reader of the search, whether that is the buyer or conveyancer, quickly and easily identify the key issues within each report? Help is at hand. TM Group, in addition to the familiar planning reports from Groundsure and Landmark, offer a range of fully interpreted planning reports for residential and commercial transactions covering all budgets from Plan Val and Dev Assess.

For more information on any of these planning reports or to organise an in-house planning CPD please contact us on 0844 249 9200 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk.