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22 February 2013 / Richard Hinton
Issue: 7549 / Categories: Features , Property , Housing
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Worth the risk?

Richard Hinton recommends orchestrating your due diligence

The best conveyancers and property lawyers need to be much like the best conductors. Understanding the risks associated with property transactions in their region and advising buyers on the potential for these risks enables them to provide effective and efficient due-diligence. Both conductors and conveyancers also need to have impeccable timing. If it isn’t conveyancers face the jarring consequences of buyers missing key information and the potential fallout of negligence claims.

For many conveyancers, direct experience of dealing with all the risks that could impact properties in their region may not be in their repertoire, but this should not stop them from being able to provide a thorough service to buyers though. Getting to grips with the risks in your region is essential. For example, one in four properties in the UK is at risk of flooding, but the prevailing myth is that the biggest risk of flooding comes from rivers breaking their banks.

However, surface water flooding only accounts for around half of all flood

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Switalskis—Naila Arif, Harriet Findlay & Ellie Thompson

Switalskis—Naila Arif, Harriet Findlay & Ellie Thompson

Firm awards training contracts to paralegals through internal programme

Ward Hadaway—Matthew Morton

Ward Hadaway—Matthew Morton

Private client disputes specialist joins commercial litigation team

Thomson Hayton Winkley—Nina Hood

Thomson Hayton Winkley—Nina Hood

Cumbria firm appoints new head of residential property

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
Family law must shift from conflict-driven litigation to child-centred problem-solving, according to a major new report. Writing in NLJ this week, Caroline Bowden of Anthony Gold outlines findings showing overwhelming support for reform, with 92% agreeing lawyers owe duties to children as well as clients
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