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 be viewed here.