In these digital days, it's worth remembering that paper can still be your friend. We work on numerous large-scale real estate projects for which due diligence is a time-consuming process.
The name of the game is information, the more we have, the clearer we can be about any material issues. The property history and how much of that is easily and readily available can make a very big impact on the efficiency of the work and the value of your assets, and therefore, the costs.
Good deeds management
Keeping good deeds records and being able to provide information and documentation is the key to speed and success. We are moving more and more into the digital age which is, of course, hugely helpful. We can share, label, file, store, retrieve, access, check and review documents very easily and quickly. This enables transactions of a scale and speed which would have been, until relatively recently, just not possible. We would advocate for fully signing up to digital documentation storage, wherever possible.
It is important, however, not to forget the humble box of deeds and development files gathering dust in a dark room. Do you know where your deeds are? Do you hold them or are they with solicitors or possibly a lender? The difficulty can often be that deeds are forgotten, misplaced, hard to access or simply lost.
The value of a paper trail
Property is a long term, long lasting asset, and it might come with a lengthy history which can still be relevant. If old paper records are well kept and retrievable, they can sometimes assist in saving quite large sums of money. Documents produced in the pre – digital era, and now elusive, might contain covenants, conditions or restrictions which, if known about can be managed and confirm enhanced property values. The type of documents which might contain such matters could be, for example, transfer documents with restrictive or use covenants or old planning permissions not available on a planning portal. These matters still have an active impact on the Property, reducing its value or making a sale of the Property limited in some way. These are exactly the issues a prospective purchaser, investor or funder is looking to flush out in a portfolio acquisition or funding exercise or to assess its level of risk in acquiring or taking these units as security.
It is also possible that any such issue may already have been discovered and insured against. An old, but valid, indemnity insurance policy if found, could be very valuable. If we can find these, we might be able to avoid taking out further insurance. Such indemnity insurance against known, or unknown risks can be very expensive. If an earlier insurance policy is later discovered, and a risk is double insured, there are a whole new set of problems. Double insurance is a situation to avoid as it will invariably lead to lengthy delays and ineffective cover.
The essential point to note is that if the information is available and we can provide sufficient comfort to a funder or prospective purchaser, your property will be chargeable or saleable at a much higher value and avoid the need for price chipping on a sale. This is an easy win to make the most of your property assets, ensuring that each property realises its fullest valuation potential. Missing thousands of pounds in value, for the same property because the paper trail has run dry is a disappointing outcome.
Let us know if we can assist in regularising deeds or documents, it is likely to be time and money well spent.