SQE1 · FLK2 · Property Practice
Searches and enquiries — SQE1 Property question
A worked single-best-answer question on searches and enquiries, with why each wrong option is wrong — the way SQE1 traps candidates.
Searches and enquiries
Your firm acts for Hana, who exchanged contracts today to buy a registered freehold flat for £250,000 with the aid of a mortgage. Completion is due in three weeks. You need to make a pre-completion search to protect Hana and her lender. The title is registered and no part of it is being sold off.
Which pre-completion search should you make, and what protection does it give?
- AA land charges search against the seller's name, which gives 15 working days' protection.
- BAn official search with priority, which protects the buyer for six months from the date of the search.
- CAn official search of the whole of the registered title with priority, which gives a priority period of 30 working days within which the application to register must be lodged.
- DA repeat local authority search, which protects the buyer against any entries made since exchange.
- EAn official search of part, which is used whenever the buyer is obtaining mortgage finance.
Show answer and reasoning
C is the best answer. For registered land the pre-completion search is an official search of the whole with priority (form OS1). It reveals entries made since the date of the official copies and gives a priority period ending at midnight on the 30th working day, during which the buyer's application to register takes priority over later entries (Land Registration Rules 2003, rr 131 and 147). The application to register must be lodged within that period.
Rule: An official search with priority of a registered title gives a 30-working-day priority period within which the application to register must be lodged.
- A A land charges search is for unregistered land; the protection period of 15 working days does not apply to a registered title. (right rule, wrong facts)
- B The priority period is 30 working days, not six months. (wrong rule)
- D A local search does not confer priority against registrable dispositions and is not the pre-completion search for a registered title. (answers a different question)
- E A search of part is used where only part of a registered title is being bought, not because there is a mortgage. (wrong rule)
Source: Land Registration Act 2002, s 72; Land Registration Rules 2003, rr 131, 147