Dumped by the Abbey – yet more

Posted by Justin on Mar 27, 2009 in Abaddons Musings, banks, conveyancing, lawyers, local, small towns | 0 comments The Abbey’s draconian step of removing some 6,000 solicitors from its conveyancing panel for mortgage work – without warning or any specified reason except low volume of transactions – is getting some media publicity
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Dumped by the Abbey – further thoughts

Posted by Justin on Mar 25, 2009 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, lawyers, local, small towns | 0 comments I have today heard from another (fairly local) solicitor who has been dumped by the Abbey from its conveyancing panelThis is particularly harsh for him and his clients, as he has 4 cases going through at present, and suddenly the Abbey is disrupting everything and causing chaos and extra expense. This does not surprise me – the Abbey just does not seem to care – but it has firmed up...
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Trade guilds against HIPs?

Posted by Justin on Mar 7, 2009 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, HIPs, lawyers, legal system | 0 comments Entrenched interests always fight change – see Seth’s Blog – which may be why so many vested interests undermine Home Information Packss (apart from the fact that their implementation was, and remains, crap, of course!)In addition, those who are merely competent will resist change, because it undermines their competenceHowever, I do find that a well-prepared HIP (with, for...
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Oven-ready chips? Exchange-ready HIPs!

Posted by Justin on Feb 13, 2009 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, estate agents, HIPs, lawyers, PIQs | 0 comments In an earlier post, I commented that the latest “improvements” to HIPs would not in fact make them more useful. What is needed (IMO) is a cultural change, so that sellers, agents and solicitors accepted that, however badly-thought-out (by civil servants and poloticians) HIPs are, the property professionals can make them work and use them to benefit buyers and sellersIf, instead of...
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Uh-oh! Here comes trouble! (With added acronyms)

Posted by Justin on Feb 10, 2009 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, estate agents, legal system, PIQs | 0 comments 6 April 2009 is coming – the date from which house (and flat) sellers must have a complete Home Information Pack (HIP) in place before their property can be marketed The HIP must contain – an indexan Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) – or, for newbuilds, a Predicted Energy Assessment (PEA) – though marketing can start without these documents 14 days after their request if they are not...
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Home Information Packs

Posted by Justin on Feb 4, 2009 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, estate agents, HIPs, PIQs | 0 comments Setting to one side (for now) the inept way in which Home Information Packs (HIPs) have been introduced, and assuming (for the sake of this post) that they are, if properly implemented, a Good Thing, the changes that will take effect on 6 April 2009 are likely to have a significant impact for sellers, buyers, estate agents and lawyers. To take a couple of points -1: The HIP will need to include...
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