Legal Drafting (Property) Flashcards
(9 cards)
When drafting the contract date, what should be includeed?
This needs to be left blank as it is added when the contracts are exchanged.
Often a post-it note printed “Do not date” is stuck here t
In your drafting exercise, you should add “to be inserted on exchange”
If a property being sold has an occupier (in addition to the seller - for example, an adult daughter) how should they be treated contractually?
Any adult or entity in occupation of a property, and who is not the seller, should sign the contract, or make a written declaration which they sign and to which the contract should refer, that
- a) they agree to vacate on or before completion and
- b) they release any right(s) they may have in the property or any chattels in it.
You should include a clause to cover these points. Consequently, you should include them as a third party (Occupier)
What is the contract rate?
The “Contract Rate” is used to work out how much compensation is payable if completion happens after the Completion Date as a result of the Buyer being at fault.
It should not be too high as it risks being found unenforceable as a penalty - 5% is a commercially acceptable upper limit for the seller’s solicitor to include in the first draft of the contract.
If the contract rate is left blank, what happens?
If this was left blank, the SCS provide for the Law Society’s interest rate to be paid which is currently 8.5% above Barclays Bank’s interest rate. (Law Society interest rate)
If the contract is drafted such that the seller has to insure after exchange what obligation does SCS 5.1.2 impose?
Obligations on the seller to maintain the policy and to cancel it on completion.
What deposit is anticipated by the SCS?
How can this be amended in a contract?
The SCS anticipate a deposit of 10% and if that is not the case, SCS 2.2.1 needs amending.
In the standard form SCS, for example, this wording is used to vary a standard condition “Condition [X ] shall take eect as if the [amount] specified in it was [ X]%”.
How is title deduced according to the SCS?
How can this be altered?
The SCS work on the basis of title being deduced to the buyer after exchange.
If title has been deduced before exchange you expressly exclude SCS 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3.1.
Provide an example of an occupiers consent clause
The Occupier agrees with the Seller and Buyer, in consideration of their entering into the contract, that the Occupier concurs in the sale of the Property on the terms of this contract, undertakes to vacate the Property on or before the Completion Date and releases the Property and any included fixtures and contents from any right or interest that the Occupier might have.
What is the best way to alter the completion time from the SCSs 2pm default?
“Conditions 6.1.2 and 6.1.3 shall take effect as if the time specified in them were [ X] rather than 2.00 pm”.
