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Premier Warranty Case

The claimant had given inaccurate answers in its Premier Guarantee proposal form. The court was asked to consider whether, in these circumstances, the defendant insurer was liable to the claimant under the policy for losses caused from the insolvency of a builder. Akenhead J held that the insurer was not liable, as the basis of the contract clause included in the proposal form, required answers to be true to the best of the claimant’s knowledge or belief. On the facts before the judge, the error of the claimant in identifying the wrong builder was innocent, but the claimant knew or ought to have known that the wrong builder had been identified. (Genesis Housing Association Ltd v Liberty Syndicate Management Ltd and others [2012] EWHC 3105.)

Town & Village Greens-The Growth And Infrastructure Bill

The Growth And Infrastructure Bill receives its second reading in the Commons today.

One of the less discussed provisions is to allow landowners to deposit statements bringing to an end any period of user as of right by third parties which might otherwise support a claim to Town or Village Green status.

Provisions are also contained in the Bill to terminate the right to apply for land to be so registered after a “ trigger event” has occurred, including the first publication of an application for planning permission in respect of the land.

Mount Green’s 50th anniversary

We were delighted to recently attend a reception to launch the 50th Anniversary Year of Mount Green Housing Association. The reception took place in the fantastic setting of the Library at Wotton House and was attended by a variety of consultants and other partners working in the Affordable Housing Sector.

Mount Green has provided a valuable service in providing and managing Affordable Housing in the South East for the last 50 years, including servicing the needs of those in rural locations.  We hope and expect that it will continue to prosper in the same way for the next 50 years!

Affordable Home Ownership Awards 2012

The awards ceremony took place on Thursday 27th September and we were proud to sponsor the Best Development Partnership Award.

The award was presented to Triathlon Homes for East Village, Stratford.  Congratulations to all involved in this development project.

We look forward to next year’s awards!

The end of Right to Buy?

The Trades Union Congress will campaign to end the right to buy after delegates at its annual conference approved a motion on housing.

The policy put forward also called for the general council of congress to push for a ‘massive increase’ in social house building.

It also wants the government to implement new rules requiring companies to train apprentices on social housing sites, and scrap the affordable homes programme, which allows landlords to charge up to 80 per cent of market rent for homes.

NEW RPCON FORMS

 RPCON 2, RPCON 3 and RPCON 6 were changed on 13 August 2012.  Always download the latest version from the HCA  web-site.

Sell expensive Social Homes

The Policy Exchange recommend the sale of social homes in more expensive areas to allow re-investment of the proceeds in building a greater number of homes in less expensive areas.

“Social Cleansing” or a sensible re-allocation of resources???

Silly Season News

With the holidays now being upon us there is little legal news of interest to those involved in the property world.  Instead of producing our weekly news update this week we thought we would share with you on our coffee time spot some of the silliest laws in the UK.  Check them out every day and we hope you enjoy them.  Needless to say, we do not know whether they are in fact genuine laws, but it is probably best not to find out the hard way!  If you know any daft laws yourselves, let us know.

Land Registry Fee reductions

Some good news for a change!

On 22 October 2012, the Land Registry is  reducing its fees by an average of 10 per cent under a new fee order.  The scale provides for lower fixed fees for applications relating to nearly every statutory service.

Separate to the Fee Order 2012, the Land Registry is  planning a review on the future structure of its fees and subject to ministerial approval intends  to run a consultation in 2013 on restructuring the Fee Order.

New Team Member

We are pleased to announce that Amy Jones joined our Disposals Team on 23rd July.  Amy is a fully qualified Licensed Conveyancer with more than 10 years experience of new build property sales and purchases.

Amy joins us from a large firm in Bromley where she acted on behalf of both buyer and sellers in relation to property transactions focusing mainly on new build, shared ownership and equity loan schemes.

Amy will be acting on behalf of RP clients in relation to shared ownership and private sales, resales and staircasing transactions.