Country solicitor

In addition to the massive downturn in the sale of properties and consequent lack of transactions to be registered, work loads at the Land Registry will reduce over time as more and more land and property is added to their records. Compulsory registration has been in place across the country for many years now meaning that on a change of ownership, where a property has not previously been registered, the Land Registry are sent the bundle of title deeds, which can be quite substantial, and their staff then go through these distilling the relevant details into what is now a computerised record showing the ownership and other relevant information such as mortgages and rights affecting the land. As that process progresses over the years there will be fewer unregistered properties coming through the system and less work overall. The process has some way to go yet though and I have no doubt that at some point it will be made compulsory to register any remaining property not already on the Registry's books.

Now on at a far more reasonable £14,000,000

More jobs gone at Bovis and the dividend too: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7819752.stm

More a reflection I suspect of the lunatic level of complex legislation in this country.

No surprises here (or of course in the response ), expect plenty more of this as workloads across many areas have collapsed. As mentioned lots less income tax for Mr Darling. Gilts anyone?

You are not committed to buy until your solicitor has exchanged contracts with the vendor's solicitor, so an offer alone is not binding you to anything (in England and Wales at least, in Scotland an offer is binding I understand-where are you?). Contracts will only be exchanged once your solicitor is satisfied with the search results and the vendor's title to the property and you are happy with any survey carried out, up to that point you are free to withdraw or alter your offer.

Agreed.

You don't need any legal documents to make an offer-just make it i.e say "I offer you 35% below the asking price" and proceed from there.

See here: http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...howtopic=100250

And here: http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...howtopic=100226

BBC ticker saying 1,200 in the UK. I wondered when todays losses would start.

Cue lots of appalling puns. Lets remember that there is a time and a plaice for such humour.

It is now 10.19 and no administrations have been announced so far today. This doesn't feel right.

Good point, the more of this we have the less likely it is anyone will want to extend credit to any business, and so the screw tightens further. The cost of credit insurance presumably will increase as well. The law of unintended consequences applies to our insolvency legislation as it does so often elsewhere.

Viyella are the latest to go down. Its getting difficult to keep up! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7815962.stm

Apparently now confirmed by the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7812917.stm

Passion for Perfume scent into administration: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7812010.stm

An excellent start to the New Year indeed-another woeful set of mortgage approval figures and another drop of in excess of 2% m-on-m. It's going to be an interesting few months!

I'm still trying to choose my Thai girlfriend-decisions, decisions!

Which means he is actually anticipating a larger drop, but is going for 30% so as not to appear too alarmist whilst being sufficiently pessismistic to retain some credibility when the market hits a thumping low in a couple of years time.

News on the grapevine. HSBC have suspended all outstanding mortgage offers for commercial premises whilst they reassess them. Inevitably some will be withdrawn altogether when the new criteria are announced.

Very interesting indeed. Thanks Bearfacts. Things are bad when businesses start taking cash out of banks to keep at the office. Not surprising though as the interest rates now offered are so low there is almost no point putting funds on deposit.

"The number of mortgage approvals for house purchases fell by 14% in November to a new low of 17,773, according to the British Bankers' Association (BBA). The number of people re-mortgaging but staying in their existing home also dipped significantly in November, with homeowners unable to find a better deal to switch to. This fell to 29,798, almost half of the 52,452 of the previous month, and the lowest for eight years." Until this months figures come out!

I suspect this is a storm in a tea cup but no doubt further news will filter through later in the day.

Agreed. What was wrong with the old layout to merit a change?