X-Press Legal Services - Gloucestershire

When is a search provider, not just a search provider? When they become an extension of your team! ✅ Copy documents/agreements FOC with our Local Search ✅ Cross referencing address/plan at point of ordering ✅ Bespoke/transaction specific fixed search quotes ✅ Querying and resolving issues as they arrive (missing/incorrect data) ✅ Assisting with queries on sales I suspect I’m missing a lot but essentially we treat each search request individually, and our clients as more than just a number ☺️

We had a fabulous September, and have lots of urgent search requests coming in at the moment with an end of October deadline (thank you incoming budget!) Unfortunately timed with a lot of Local Authority annual leave, but as usual we will explore all options to meet these deadlines and think outside of the box if we need to! I still need to get a date in the diary for our webinar covering Local Searches. This will be an in-depth discussion covering all aspects of the local search, the processes we go through to obtain the data, and how we use data as a starting point to make sense of the property “story.” I will also be looking to send out invitations to our residential and conveyancing update this month ready for January!

Tewkesbury planning is up! We are just waiting on building control now which I am hoping will be tomorrow. We are going to start ploughing through the backlog. Expect regulated local searches requested on at least the 8th, 9th, 13th and 14th of August to be back with you tomorrow (all being well) Phew! If building control becomes available as anticipated, we should be back at a "normal" turnaround time of 23 working days by the end of this week. If land charges continue to be returned quickly we will look to reduce this ASAP.

Another Tewkesbury update! We’ve started receiving land charges back for requests from last month 🥳 But public access planning and building control data is still unavailable so we still can’t complete results. Definitely getting there, and fingers crossed for the next couple of days. Official searches still pending return (assume due to planning/b control)

Tewkesbury Borough Council identified a cyber incident on 04/09/2024 and as a result have shut down their systems as a precaution. We are currently aware that planning application, building control and land charges data are all currently unavailable. We are constantly reviewing the situation and will provide updates as soon as we are able to. For further information - https://lnkd.in/ewAjuUsJ If you are coming under pressure, it would be best to contact us about specific cases as there may be some data we hold that would allow a partial regulated local search plus partial search insurance to be possible. Highway Records and Rights of Way data are available as normal. Official Searches are currently unavailable. For further information - https://lnkd.in/ewAjuUsJ

We’ve just found out Tewkesbury Borough Council have had a cyber attack. We will be in touch with everyone as soon as we find out what this means for searches. At this point it will be at least land charges and building control data.

Our clients and their clients will always be central to what we do! It's the best feeling when we can pull things like this off.

A double announcement today for our lovely Megan Peacey! This year is her 15th year with X-Press, and we are so pleased to announce that she has become Search Team Lead this week. Meg's knowledge and experience around local searches is vast, and we are very much looking forward to seeing her shine in this new role, as we continue to tweak what we do and what we can offer our clients. Congratulations Meg!

**TA6 form update*** “Having reflected on the strength of feeling expressed by members on this issue we have this week decided to postpone compulsory implementation of the TA6 Property Information Form (5th edition) (2024) for accredited conveyancing quality scheme members for six months while we consult members further.' Until 15 January 2025 members will be compliant with the CQS if they use either TA6 (4th edition, second revision) (2020) or if they use the new TA6 Property Information Form (5th edition) (2024), Jeffery said. 'In the coming weeks we will consult members further about the content of the TA6 5th edition to ensure we understand the full range of member views.'”

Invitations have been sent out to our clients for our Planning Enforcement and Conditions webinar with Zoe Upson taking place next Tuesday, and we've got attendees from 10 Gloucestershire law firms booked in already! Key learning outcomes: 👉 Understand the issues that can arise when dealing with planning conditions. 👉 Gain confidence in tackling some of the trickier aspects. 👉 Understand how planning conditions can affect our clients and what to advise them. 👉 Get to grips with the new enforcement powers. Please let me know if you haven't received an invite. I'm really looking forward to this. Zoe has spoken in-person at a few X-Press events already this year and the feedback was fantastic.