HIPS

I received an email from the Law Society's HIP thing yesterday advising that the regulations had just been published. Logging on to the website I only had a short time to review the details but it appears the "packs" must contain certain documentation and may contain other documents. The must have documents appear to be a copy of the land registry entries (or deeds if unregistered), a local search and the Home Condition Report and thats about it. What about a Contract, Property Information Form, Fixtures and Fittings form etc.

I cannot see any benefit to a prospective Buyer in having any of these documents available at the point of viewing other than perhaps the Home Condition Report. I believe that Estate Agents will only put in a HIP what they have to in order to get the property on the market and they would be able to source the search and copy entries without the need for solicitor involvement (transaction online etc). I can't see this as being the "death" of the High Street practice or am I missing something?

CHAPS Payments

Another Friday and another load of grief with our Bank. Our Bank (nameless of course) has chosen to outsource its CHAPS receipts and payment procedures to Malaysia or somewhere that way.We telephone a UK number where the details of the payment are noted and the telephone call recorded and they then give the details to Malaysia who action the payment. The receipts by CHAPS are actually credited to our account by Malaysia and we receive a telephone call from them to advise receipt. You may already see that this is a crap system for the customer as there are too many people involved where delay may occur.

Today we needed funds off deposit to complete a transaction. They were sent to us by CHAPS before 9.30 am this morning. At 1.45 pm we were still waiting for a call to confirm receipt of the funds. We telephoned the UK number to enquire as to the receipt to be told "we can see the funds but they are not yet credited to your account". The funds "arrived" at 11.06 am but at 1.45 pm we had still not received them in our account i.e. Malaysia had sat on the funds for 2hrs 45 mins and done nothing to credit the funds. I have spoken with our "relationship manager" (sic)previously about these delays and how badly it affects clients waiting for keys but he seems powerless to do anything about it. I know we could change banks but this is a major excercise with client account.

I wonder how these sort of problems will affect e-conveyancing and the Land Registry matrix and just pray that I can retire before all this is in place.