Cover me in debt, debt to the eyeballs (or advice on buying a shoebox in England)

[Lorizael]

Ah, I thought it was something specific to housing stuff.

[East Street Trader]

While I am not a conveyancer - so take anything I say with a large pinch of salt - I believe it is true to say that a road scheme still in the planning stage would not show up on a local search and you would not routinely search Coal Board records about subsidence, rather only do so when the solicitor is instructed by his client that there is some specific reason to do so.

In England, Lorizael, we have two sorts of lawyer - a solicitor, who will usually have an office in the high street and who stands ready to offer advice on all sorts of legal matters - making a will, defending a drunk driving charge, getting divorced, doing a commercial deal, drawing up a contract and (probably the commonest thing on which people find themselves in need of legal help) buying and selling land.

Or a barrister who (broadly) specialises in representing people in court.

You don't have quite the same distinction in the states although I think you do have a breed of lawyer called a trial lawyer who, while qualifying in the same way and practicing in offices along with non-specialist lawyers confine themselves principally to the same sort of legal work as barristers do.

The work of solicitors is much the same as the work undertaken by lawyers in the various United States, as I understand it, but I don't really know much about your conveyancing arrangements so I don't know how much, if any, legal work there may be in connection with the buying and selling of houses.

[Kuciwalker]

Are solicitors and barristers accredited separately?

[East Street Trader]

Yes.

Nowadays we do a common set of exams but to become a solicitor you spend two years in a solicitors' office completing what used to be called articles and is now called a training contract, get interviwed by the Law Society to check your ethics/morals and you are then admitted to the roll in which solicitors names are recorded. To become a barrister you spend one year doing what is called pupilage - in which you trail about picking up tips from an established barrister - you "eat your dinners" which means you dine a set number of times in one of the Inns of Court and you are then called to the bar.

Solicitors mostly band themselves together in partnerships but barristers remain one man bands except in that they band together to share a set of rooms ("chambers") and the services of a confidential clerk.

While both professions require an understanding of the law the day to day experience of each is very different. Virtually anyone with the necessary academic skills can make it to be a solicitor and will have a decent chance to succeed. But it is much harder to make your way as a barrister. What you really need is either a whole bunch of uncles/cousins/whatever who are solicitors (barristers get their work from solicitors) or come from a family where your father and his father before him were High Court judges of distinction.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by East Street Trader
Nowadays we do a common set of exams but to become a solicitor you spend two years in a solicitors' office completing what used to be called articles and is now called a training contract, get interviwed by the Law Society to check your ethics/morals and you are then admitted to the roll in which solicitors names are recorded. To become a barrister you spend one year doing what is called pupilage - in which you trail about picking up tips from an established barrister - you "eat your dinners" which means you dine a set number of times in one of the Inns of Court and you are then called to the bar.

Common set of exams? Don't solicitors and barristers take entirely different postgraduate courses, with solicitors taking the LPC (Legal Practice Course) and barristers taking the BVC (Bar Vocational Course)?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by East Street Trader
While I am not a conveyancer - so take anything I say with a large pinch of salt - I believe it is true to say that a road scheme still in the planning stage would not show up on a local search and you would not routinely search Coal Board records about subsidence, rather only do so when the solicitor is instructed by his client that there is some specific reason to do so.

I worked in mortgage securitisation for six months, and documents regularly made reference to post code planning planning permission requests (fair enough, not just planning stage consideration) as well as any encumbrances such as mining rights.

Whilst neither in themselves are town planning or mining records, I would think that a request for a new road would go through planning permission committee and that mining rights would be relevant to any ex-coal mine.

My experience is from Australia, and so may not be standard practice in the UK.

I agree that a local solicitor would more likely be wary to look out for such things on past experience of an area, but I would hope that the legal status of something like a compulsory purchase would show up regardless. If it didn't, then the law is screwy.

[Alexander's Horse]

real estate is a great investment because you can borrow against it.

Moby has been to my house, "the Italian job"

I'm just about halfway through the mortgage now because we've saved a lot being OS.

[East Street Trader]

Originally posted by Drogue

Common set of exams? Don't solicitors and barristers take entirely different postgraduate courses, with solicitors taking the LPC (Legal Practice Course) and barristers taking the BVC (Bar Vocational Course)?

You are right.

I had a quick look at the Law Society and Bar Council/Bar Standards Board websites and it looks as though the current position is that if you have not done a law degree you first take a set of exams which (judging by their name) are still common to solicitors and baristers. But then things diverge as you describe.

[Drogue]

While it's not buying, I've just had my (rental) offer accepted on a flat. 'Tis v. nice, in Rotherhithe, right by the river and with a little garden. Pretty much everything I want. And because it's a ground floor flat, it's ~£100 a week cheaper than anything similar around. So I guess that means next 'Polymeet can actually be a little nearer the centre of London this time

[Provost Harrison]

Oh don't worry, we weren't going to change the next Polymeet location on your behalf

[Cort Haus]

Good luck with the project Dauphin. I and my GF finally managed to buy a flat. We've moved in, and today the broadband connection was established. And the Sky TV through a shared dish.

The other day, to prove to myself that it wasn't too far out of town I walked to Westminster and visited the Cathedral, before walking along the South Bank to Tower Bridge, then through the City up to Islington and through Holloway back home.

Gothic church conversions rock.

[DrSpike]

Not so much in winter.

[MikeH]

We completed on the 29th June, have been moved in about 5 weeks. So far everything's great but it's amazing how much there is to do in a house that needs no work.

[Alexander's Horse]

aw, they're are all growing up...

my next objective is a holiday house

http://allhomes.com.au/c/ah?a=sp&p=284991

[Dauphin]

I move in tomorrow.