This may involve reducing non-essential client and business meetings and having staff working from home, at certain times.  As a modern IT enabled business, we are confident that as a firm there will be little disruption to our service. We are taking every precaution to ensure the safety and health of our team and the wider community, but we need your help. If you are experiencing flu-like symptoms do not come into the office. Instead, please contact your dedicated conveyancer so that we can discuss the options with you to ensure our collective well-being. If you come into the office you will be asked to use hand sanitiser and we will keep our distance.

However, there are special legal considerations for clients who are entering into contracts for the sale and purchase of properties. 

A brief note on the legals - once you have exchanged contracts, you are contractually bound to complete on your sale/purchase on the agreed completion date.  If you are unable to complete on time, whatever the reason, including Coronavirus, you will be in breach of contract.  The implications of this can range from payment of interest for a late completion, or potentially the loss of the 10% deposit (for buyers), and other reasonable costs which might flow from the breach of contract. It is not a viable option to insert clauses into sale/purchase contracts to cover the Coronavirus.

We are hopeful that solicitors/conveyancers, banks, lenders and removal companies will be very much ‘business as usual’, and if there are problems, that parties will work together and take a pragmatic approach to ensure that transactions complete as quickly as possible.  However, we must be alive to the possibility that we could reach a time where there are delays, for example in lenders releasing mortgage funds, other parties’ solicitors not being fully operational or removal companies being short staffed or having access issues.  With co-operation, there are ways in which these issues can be resolved.  However, we would encourage you to check  with all of those involved in your conveyancing transaction prior to exchange of contracts, consider the length of time that you need between exchange and completion, and think about arrangements you could make should you or a member of your family need to self-isolate during the moving period.

As present we anticipate that transactions will proceed as normal and there is no reason to be unduly concerned or change any plans, but we wanted to highlight this to you, and reassure you that we have given consideration to the current situation, have plans in place and will continue to monitor developments.

May we also take this opportunity to remind you of the other services we offer to clients including remortgaging, commercial property transactions, lease terminations and extensions, Lasting Power of Attorney and Wills. Full details of which can be found on our website  https://humbleclark.com/our-services