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New version of CPSE.1 issued
Practical Law UK Legal Update 6-559-1565 (Approx. 4 pages)
New version of CPSE.1 issued
| Published on 28 Feb 2014 • England, Wales |
A new version (3.3) of CPSE.1 has been released and is available for immediate use. CPSE.1 (version 3.3) General pre-contract enquiries for all commercial property transactions introduces an enquiry on the Green Deal and a new set of completely revised enquiries on capital allowances, to deal with the changes in the capital allowances regime from April 2014. There have also been changes in the order (but not the text) of other enquiries.
Speedread
A new version of CPSE.1 (Commercial Property Standard Enquiries) has been released for immediate use.
CPSE.1 (version 3.3) General pre-contract enquiries for all commercial property transactions makes changes to:
- Introduce a new enquiry on the Green Deal.
- Revise completely the enquiries on capital allowances, ready for the changes in the capital allowances regime which take effect in April 2014.
- Reorder some of the enquiries, in response to feedback.
- Clarify the extent of the disclaimer which protects the seller's solicitors from liability for errors in the replies.
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Background
The Commercial Property Standard Enquiries (CPSE) suite of documents are prepared by members of the London Property Support Lawyers Group and endorsed by the British Property Federation. The CPSE are updated and modified from time to time.
A new version of CPSE.1 (version 3.3) has been published by Practical Law Property (see CPSE.1 (version 3.3) General pre-contract enquiries for all commercial property transactions). This replaces version 3.2, which can still be viewed (with previous versions of all the documents in the CPSE suite) on the Historic Versions page (see Commercial Property Standard Enquiries: historic enquiries and guidance notes).
Changes made to the CPSE.1 enquiries
The enquiries that have been amended or added are:
New enquiry 8.2: Green Deal
The new enquiry asks whether the Seller is aware of any Green Deal Plan affecting the Property. Such a plan may have been entered into by the Seller, its predecessor or someone else occupying the Property (whether on lease or licence). If a Green Deal Plan does affect the Property, the Buyer will need to establish its terms and whether the liability to make payments will fall to the Buyer following completion of the sale.
New enquiry 32: Capital Allowances
This enquiry replaces Enquiry 19. The enquiries are intended to establish the details which will determine whether the Buyer can claim capital allowances and at what rate. They reflect the changes in the capital allowances regime (in particular the pooling requirement) which take effect in April 2014. For further information on the changes and their implications, see Practice note, Property contracts: dealing with plant and machinery capital allowances.
Reordering of enquiries 19 to 32
These enquiries have been reordered, but (except for enquiry 19, which has been replaced by the new enquiry 32) are in the same terms as in CPSE.1 (version 3.2).
Additional words in the Interpretation section
Paragraph 3 of the Interpretation section has been amended by inserting the words "its members or employees" at the end of the paragraph. These words make it clear that the Seller's solicitors (both the firm and the individuals who work for it, whether employees, partners or members (as in an LLP)) are not responsible for any inaccuracy in the replies that are given.