Licensed Conveyancer common mistakes
Licensed Conveyancer · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Applying the contract date as the date of supply for a VAT question on a conveyancing bill, instead of the tax point rules (basic tax point, actual tax point, or the 14-day invoice rule).
Candidates conflate the commercial completion of the transaction with the statutory tax point, and stop analysing once they find a plausible date on the file.
What to do instead
Before answering, write out the three tax point tests in order and apply each to the facts, noting which one displaces the others. Practise with fact patterns where the invoice is issued more than 14 days after the basic tax point.
Treating a deposit as automatically forfeitable on the buyer's default without checking whether the contract is a standard conditions contract, whether the deposit exceeds 10 per cent, and whether the seller has elected to rescind or affirm.
The word 'deposit' triggers an assumption of automatic forfeiture, and candidates skip the election analysis because they see a breach and jump to the remedy.
What to do instead
Use a fixed four-step checklist: identify the contract terms, quantify the deposit against the 10 per cent norm, identify the seller's election, then consider relief under the court's discretion. Answer each step explicitly in the script.
Missing that a lease assignment requires landlord's licence to assign, and advising completion without checking the licence conditions, any rent deposit deed, or authorised guarantee agreement requirements.
Candidates focus on the transfer document and forget the leasehold layer of consents, which sit outside the TR1 and are easy to overlook under time pressure.
What to do instead
Build a leasehold pre-completion checklist that starts with the lease clauses on alienation and runs through licence, guarantee, and registration. Apply it to every leasehold question even where the facts seem to make it irrelevant.
Confusing the effect of registration: advising that a purchaser of registered land obtains a legal estate free of all prior interests, rather than free of interests except those that override or are protected on the register.
The phrase 'registered title is conclusive' is remembered in isolation, and candidates do not link it to the schedule of overriding interests and the protection machinery.
What to do instead
Redraft the rule from memory with the exceptions listed, then test it against three interests (a short lease, an easement, an occupier's right) and state for each whether it binds and why.
Answering a conflict of interest question by identifying that a conflict exists but failing to state the specific outcome: whether the firm can act, whether both clients can give informed consent, and what safeguards are required.
Candidates stop at issue-spotting because the conflict is obvious, and they do not practise the 'so what' step that the marking scheme rewards.
What to do instead
For every conflict question, finish with a single sentence beginning 'The firm may/may not act because...' and add the safeguards. Practise writing that sentence before writing the analysis.
Calculating inheritance tax on an estate by applying the nil rate band to the whole estate without first deducting liabilities, reliefs, and exempt gifts, and without checking the transferable nil rate band claim.
The headline figure on the file is the gross estate, and candidates reach for the familiar band without sequencing the computation.
What to do instead
Always lay out the computation in a fixed order: assets, less liabilities, less reliefs, less exemptions, then apply the bands, then check transferability. Show each line even where the figure is zero.
Treating all lifetime gifts as potentially exempt transfers without testing whether the transfer was immediately chargeable (for example into a discretionary trust) or whether an exemption applies.
The potentially exempt transfer label is over-applied because it is the most familiar category, and candidates do not run through the exemption list first.
What to do instead
Before classifying any gift, run the exemption ladder (spouse, charity, annual, small gifts, normal expenditure) and only then classify. Write the classification with the reason in one line.
Failing to identify who must apply for the grant and in what order, for example advising a grant of probate where there is no valid will and letters of administration are required, or missing a chain of representation.
Candidates assume the person named as executor in the will is automatically entitled, without checking whether they have renounced, predeceased, or lost capacity.
What to do instead
Before advising, state the type of grant, the applicant, and the rule that gives priority. Check each named executor against the three disqualifiers and record the conclusion.
Omitting the executors' and administrators' duties around the appropriate account and the distribution of residue: advising distribution without clearing the six-month inheritance tax period, advertising for creditors, or checking for claims.
The question often asks about entitlement, and candidates answer that question fully but do not add the protective steps that a prudent personal representative must take.
What to do instead
Attach a standing paragraph to every distribution question covering the six-month period, creditor protection, and the personal liability risk. Keep it short but always present.
Confusing the devolution of assets on death: assuming all property passes under the will, when jointly held property may pass by survivorship and nominated or trust assets may pass outside the estate.
The will is the document in front of the candidate, and they do not check how each asset is held before applying the will's terms.
What to do instead
For each asset in the estate, write 'held by' and 'passes by' before applying the will. Only then compute the estate for probate and for inheritance tax separately.