Conveyancing Committee
22 Sep 04
Committee’s view of the proper practice on delivering the disposition and titles at time of settlement
The following question was posed to the Conveyancing Committee at a recent roadshow:
In the settlement of conveyancing transactions, should the practice be discouraged whereby the seller’s solicitor only sends the Disposition and other titles to the purchaser’s solicitor on or after the day of settlement, whereby the purchaser’s solicitor can only be sure that a validly executed Disposition has been placed in his hands after his settlement cheque has been encashed, by which point he has lost control of his clients and/or his clients’ lender’s money? Is the former practice of exchanging cheque and Disposition and titles on the day of settlement itself not safer, and better risk management?
The Committee agrees. Although the mechanics of settlement are something which ought to be the matter of agreement between the solicitors, the Committee feels that, where postal settlement is envisaged, the preferable course of action, wherever possible, is that the seller’s Solicitor should send the executed deed and deliverable title deeds contemporaneously with the purchaser’s solicitor sending the settlement cheque, each to be held by the receiving party as undelivered pending performance by the other side, to be confirmed by an exchange of communications (telephone, fax or e-mail) on the settlement date itself. The Committee would encourage all practitioners to adopt this practice.
The Conveyancing Committee are happy to answer questions of a general nature. People should contact Linsey Lewin, Secretary to the Committee, linseylewin@lawscot.org.uk