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June 2010: new versions of the CPSE documents released
Practical Law UK Legal Update 5-502-2711 (Approx. 4 pages)
June 2010: new versions of the CPSE documents released
| Published on 02 Jun 2010 • England, Wales |
An update announcing that new versions of the CPSE documents have been published and explaining what changes have been made.
Speedread
New versions of the Commercial Property Standard Enquiries (CPSE) have been published for immediate use. These are displayed on a new homepage: Commercial Property Standard Enquiries.
The primary reasons for releasing new versions of the CPSE are:
- To provide the new Word format for all the CPSE documents (not just CPSE.1). This new format allows for replies to be inserted immediately under the enquiry or requirement.
- To make the CPSE documents easier to use by:
- amalgamating the guidance notes with the enquiries/requirements by inserting "integrated guidance notes" in the web format of the CPSE documents;
- putting the conditions of use in one place (GN/CPSE) and then referring to those conditions from each of the other documents. This will save a considerable amount of paper; and
- facilitating searches for the current version of the CPSE documents.
- To amend the conditions for using the CPSE to clarify the disclaimers, refer to the integrated guidance notes and reflect that the Word documents allow replies to be inserted immediately under the enquiries or requirements.
During the course of producing the new versions of the CPSE, the CPSE working party (comprising representatives of the London Property Support Lawyers Group and PLC Property) has made some minor amendments to update some of the guidance notes. The amendments are not sufficiently important to warrant providing any details.
The CPSE working party decided against a wholesale review of all the CPSE documents on this occasion. It is proposed instead to carry out a consultation exercise over the summer months to obtain suggestions for improvements to the CPSE. As part of this exercise, the CPSE working party will review all the existing enquiries, requirements and guidance notes.
Format
Each CPSE document continues to be available for use in three formats:
- Web.
- Word.The Word format of the new versions of each CPSE document allows a user to insert replies to the enquiries or requirements. Previously, this was only available for CPSE.1 (version 2.9) General pre-contract enquiries for all commercial property transactions.The Word format can be accessed from the Actions pane in the top right hand corner of the screen when viewing the web version of the relevant CPSE document.
- PDF.
Integrated guidance notes
To date, the guidance notes for each set of enquiries or requirements have been in separate documents.
In the new versions of the CPSE documents, the guidance notes have been integrated with the enquiries or requirements in the web format of the documents (but not in either the Word or PDF formats).
In the web format, the integrated guidance notes can be viewed or printed separately from the enquiries or requirements by using the options in the Actions pane in the top right hand corner of the relevant web page.
Searching
There are two important changes:
- Historic versions of each CPSE document will no longer show up in the results of a search for that document. For example, a search for "CPSE.2" will produce only the current version of CPSE.2.This has been done because users have found it difficult to find the current version where using a keyword search because the search brings up both the historic and the current versions.The historic versions will remain accessible from a link on the CPSE homepage.
- The web address for the CPSE homepage has been changed for technical reasons. However, the link to it on the PLC Property home page remains in the same place. The following image of the PLC Property homepage will remind you where that link is located:
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What will this mean? Very little in practice but note the following:
- The new CPSE homepage looks easier to navigate because there is a single link to a separate page displaying all the historic versions and consultation drafts.The CPSE homepage will also display any notices of changes made or to be made to the CPSE.
- This is the link for the new CPSE homepage: Commercial Property Standard Enquiries. You can save this as a "Favourite" for easy access.If you use the old web address by mistake, you will access a page that redirects you to the new web address.
Conditions
The conditions for use have in the past appeared in each CPSE document. The conditions are now printed in one place only: GN/CPSE (version 3) Guidance notes on the Commercial Property Standard Enquiries: Conditions. All the other CPSE documents refer to the conditions and link to GN/CPSE (version 3).
The conditions have been changed to make them easier to understand and to refer to the new Word format and the integrated guidance notes.
Consultation
From time to time, the CPSE working party (comprising representatives of the London Property Support Lawyers Group and PLC Property) reviews the current CPSE documents and makes amendments to reflect changes in law and practice. As part of this exercise, there will be a public consultation to invite views on the CPSE and their future development.
Details of this consultation will be announced shortly and will be sent in an update to subscribers to PLC Property and will also appear on the new CPSE home page, so the information will be readily available to users who are not subscribers to PLC Property.
CPSE 6 and CRC enquiries
These new enquiries are necessary to deal with issues arising under the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme 2010 (CRC). A consultation draft of the enquiries was issued in December 2009 and these have been refined in the light of the helpful feedback received by PLC and changes in the CRC Order. The revised consultation drafts are now available for comment. These will be formally adopted as CPSE documents when agreement and endorsement of the drafts is given by the London Property Support Lawyers Group.
However, PLC Property recognises that some people will wish to raise CRC enquiries before that point. They may find the advanced consultation drafts helpful. For the time being links to these consultation drafts have been included on the CPSE homepage and in Form RQ.