Deal agreed to unblock house sale transactions
Mortgage lenders and the Law Society of Scotland have agreed temporary measures that should unblock house sale transactions close to completion.
Many transactions were put on hold after Registers of Scotland (RoS) closed the official register for new documents, citing staff health risks. A technical legal fix has been agreed, which means most major lenders should now release mortgage funds. However, it is expected that few home sales will be imminently agreed. Earlier this week, RoS proposed replacing registrations on the Land Register temporarily with "advance notices". The aim was to provide sufficient legal cover to secure transactions. Many solicitors have stalled or abandoned home sales, leaving many buyers and sellers facing the cost of cancelled removals and securing continued accommodation. These are mostly home sales agreed weeks before the virus outbreak escalated. On Tuesday, the law society advised solicitors not to settle transactions, following the RoS move. It later revised that advice while it considered the new RoS proposals.