Chapter 6: Review the file before reliance and hand over

Listed Property Risk for Conveyancers0% complete · about 57 min left

6. Review the file before reliance and hand over

Page 1 of 3 · Review the file, not the checklist

Project moment

You reach the final review with the same unresolved evidence. No surprise approval has arrived from the council.

Your task

Identify what is still unresolved, and what evidence would change the position.

Use the Project Material on the right, then answer below. →Use the Project Material above, then answer below.

For this page

FILE SUMMARY AT FINAL REVIEW
• Official list entry 9000018: Grade II, listed 12 March 1974, matches the property.
• Seller’s assurances: no supporting papers for the extension or the opening.
• Extension: 2006 approvals; photographs suggest differences from the approved design. No evidence the joinery condition was met.
• Windows: 2017 FENSA certificate and invoice; no listed building consent.
• Kitchen opening: no history and no structural information.
• No specialist view yet. The buyer wants to go ahead.

Earlier project material

Listed Property File Note

18 Market Square

Stage 6 · Review the file before reliance and hand over

This stage’s entries appear here as you save each page. The record so far is below.

Earlier stages

Open — enquiries outstanding

To establish: What the opening involved, when it was done and any approval, plus a separate question of inspection and structural advice.
Advice and transaction implications: This is guidance, not consent, a condition survey or a substitute for your transaction advice.
The marketing photographs give no assurance about safety or condition.
Record the unresolved works, the gaps in the evidence, the specialist advice still awaited, and what this means for relying on the position.
No assumption that the purchase can go ahead.
Specialist heritage advice: Heritage advice for the buyer: specific to this purchase, on owning a listed building and future work.
Send: list entry, particulars and the buyer’s actual questions, plus the schedule of unresolved works if relevant.
Action owner, timing and outcome: Conveyancer to recommend in writing that, before exchange, the buyer commissions a RICS Level 3 survey (the level usually recommended for older, altered or listed buildings) and asks the surveyor to look specifically at the kitchen opening. Record the buyer’s decision.
Conveyancer to give the buyer written advice on each unresolved item on the schedule of works before exchange.
Before exchange, conveyancer to check the lender’s instructions for what must be reported about the extension and windows, report to the lender if required, and record the lender’s response.
If the lender’s position isn’t clear before exchange, conveyancer to follow the firm’s escalation procedure.

Your initial view

Which summary can you stand behind?

The File Note has an entry under every heading, so the listed building questions have been dealt with and the file is ready for exchange.With the extension and windows unresolved, the only safe advice is that the buyer should withdraw from the purchase.Useful evidence is on file, but the issues are unresolved. The next decision depends on advice, evidence and obligations still to come.The windows are covered by the FENSA certificate and the extension is too old to matter, so only the internal opening remains.

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6. Review the file before reliance and hand over, page 1 of 3: Review the file, not the checklist

1Project moment

Identify what is still unresolved, and what evidence would change the position.

3Your initial view

Project moment

Your initial view