Powers of attorney

Posted by Justin on Feb 16, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, lawyers, legal system, risk | 0 comments Ordinary powers of attorney An ordinary power of attorney gives someone (the attorney) the power to act on behalf of someone else (the donor) subject to any restrictions or conditions contained in the power of attorney. A general power of attorney gives the attorney power over all of the donor’s affairs, except where the donor is a trustee and a trustee power of attorney is required. The problem...
read more

Home Information Packs – yet again

Posted by Justin on Feb 16, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, HIPs, legal system | 1 comment With a general election looming, the Conservatives are consulting various interested parties on what to do about HIPs – abolish then, improve them or leave them as they are?My view is that, if done properly, a HIP can be a very good way of speeding up the house buying and selling process. The problem is that most sellers get a HIP because they must, and buy as cheaply as they can, instead...
read more

Property theft

Posted by Justin on Feb 15, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, legal system, risk | 0 comments Properties can be stolen: if a fraudster is able to convince the Land Registry that they are the property owner, they can sell – or more likely – mortgage the property and disappear with the proceeds before you are aware anything is wrong. In the case of a mortgage, this might not be until the mortgage lender tries to take possession for non-payment of the mortgage instalments, at...
read more

What does Google have to do with referral fees?

Posted by Justin on Feb 8, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, estate agents, lawyers, legal system, professionals | 0 comments “You don’t buy it with ads [or referral fees]. You earn it, and you earn it customer by customer, search for search, answer by answer.” – Eric Schmidt of Google on Fox Business News in 2009Despite that comment, Google chose to advertise during the televising of the Super Bowl on 7 February, so perhaps people’s views, or circumstances, or both, changeUntil very...
read more

The price of justice

Posted by Justin on Jan 18, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, lawyers, legal system | 0 comments In the Guardian today, Marcel Berlins is delighted with the Jackson Report, expecting it to drive down legal costs – of civil litigation, anyway. Maybe it will, but I think he is unfair on lawyers.OK: legal costs are high; I don’t dispute that. However, to say they are disproportionate is, often, unfair. However small the claim, the lawyer running (or defending) it is expected to be...
read more

Home Information Packs (again!)

Posted by Justin on Nov 25, 2009 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, estate agents, HIPs, lawyers, legal system | 0 comments I know I keep banging on about this, but it is my view that a combination of inadequate consultation by government, vested interests in the property industry trying to stifle change and competition on price rather than value resulted in a huge missed opportunity. Home Information Packs, properly prepared, can be of great benefit in streamlining conveyancing, to the benefit of all concerned:...
read more