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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

Seddons GSC—Ben Marks

Seddons GSC—Ben Marks

Partner joins residential real estate team

Winckworth Sherwood—Shazia Bashir

Winckworth Sherwood—Shazia Bashir

Social housing team announces partner appointment

University of Manchester: The LLM driving tech-focused career growth

University of Manchester: The LLM driving tech-focused career growth

Manchester’s online LLM has accelerated career progression for its graduates

NEWS
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 transformed criminal justice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ed Cape of UWE and Matthew Hardcastle and Sandra Paul of Kingsley Napley trace its ‘seismic impact’
Operational resilience is no longer optional. Writing in NLJ this week, Emma Radmore and Michael Lewis of Womble Bond Dickinson explain how UK regulators expect firms to identify ‘important business services’ that could cause ‘intolerable levels of harm’ if disrupted
Criminal juries may be convicting—or acquitting—on a misunderstanding. Writing in NLJ this week Paul McKeown, Adrian Keane and Sally Stares of The City Law School and LSE report troubling survey findings on the meaning of ‘sure’
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has narrowly preserved a key weapon in its anti-corruption arsenal. In this week's NLJ, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers examines Guralp Systems Ltd v SFO, in which the High Court ruled that a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) remained in force despite the company’s failure to disgorge £2m by the stated deadline
As the drip-feed of Epstein disclosures fuels ‘collateral damage’, the rush to cry misconduct in public office may be premature. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke of Hill Dickinson warns that the offence is no catch-all for political embarrassment. It demands a ‘grave departure’ from proper standards, an ‘abuse of the public’s trust’ and conduct ‘sufficiently serious to warrant criminal punishment’
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