Changes to the CON 29 and CON 290 Forms
I was delighted to read the long awaited announcement on the Law Society’s website that the introduction of the revised CON 29 and CON 29O forms is now finally in sight. There’s an official timetable that will see their introduction on 4th July 2016.
Whilst the forms are not yet published on the Law Society’s website – we’re told that specimen forms will be on there, ‘shortly’. However we’ve managed to secure copies and you can download them here: Specimen CON 29 form – front sheet and information sheet, Specimen CON 29O form – front sheet and information sheet. We expect them to match the forms as drafted and distributed some time back and which we still have many copies of in our office (happy to share on request). What we do know is that the new forms will enable conveyancers to ask about ‘Community Infrastructure Levy’ and assets of ‘Community Value’. This is a welcome development as both the introduction of CIL and the associated rates vary across the country and there is no central register as such. We also see that whilst the forms may not officially ‘go live’ until 4th July 2016, a number of conveyancers may choose to start raising some of these questions in advance of this and in their article, the Law Society suggests that if they do so, then they should, ‘follow the format of the enquiry on the form’. However they do add that if conveyancers do wish to ask about CIL related information then they should firstly check for a published charging schedule of CIL rates on the website of the local authority concerned.
So although the details are not yet fully clear, there does seem to be good reason to be hopeful that these revisions will improve the consistency and clarity of the information that conveyancers receive from local authorities and with it being such a long awaited development I think a I might join our american friends and set off a few celebratory fireworks of my own to mark the day. The full Law Society article can
LAND REGISTRY NEWS
In November, Andrew attended the first HM Land Registry Local Land Charges Conference. A very interesting day indeed. The main points were that the date capture of Local Land Charges Registers will commence in 2017 with phase one being taking all the London Council data and placing it in the new Central Register. This will cover the whole of England and be live in 2013.
There will be secondary legislation next year but there is absolutely no intention to include CON29 data. As for the funding, well, the data will all be completely free. The whole project will cost the state £189 million approximately. The aim is that the economy will benefit to the tune of £80 million per year in cost savings to the consumer in the conveyancing process.
Other interesting presentations included a free anti fraud service, where you can place a monitor in up to ten 
properties at a time to see if there are any changes to the mortgage register you may wish to know about.
Search of the index map will be replaced by the online MapSearch facility which will be providing for our clients