Monday 24 August 2026
Your weekly SQE Prep Quiz has arrived
Dear Subscriber,
Hope you had a great weekend. Please see below for the question, the answer to the previous question and associated resources. This is the web version of this newsletter.
NEW: I will be holding a live FLK Contract Law SQE Super Session on 19 September. 30 Places available upon application. If you would like to join, fill in the no commitment expression of interest form on http://events.dryannis.co.uk/
This Week’s Question: A solicitor acts for a company purchasing a commercial property. Shortly before completion, the director asks to substitute the purchase funds with money from an unrelated overseas company. The director gives no convincing commercial explanation for the change and becomes evasive when asked about the source of the funds. The solicitor suspects that the money may represent the proceeds of crime. The transaction falls within the regulated sector. Which of the following is the most appropriate action for the solicitor to take?
A. Continue with the transaction because suspicion alone is insufficient unless the solicitor can prove that the money represents criminal property.
B. Tell the director that a suspicious activity report will be made and suspend the transaction until the director provides satisfactory evidence.
C. Report the suspicion through the firm’s appropriate internal procedure so that a suspicious activity report can be considered, while avoiding any disclosure that could prejudice an investigation.
D. Immediately terminate the retainer and inform the police directly that the director is probably engaged in money laundering.
E. Continue acting but place the disputed funds in the firm’s client account until the National Crime Agency confirms whether they are criminal property.
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Last Week’s Question: A solicitor acts for a buyer purchasing the whole of a registered freehold title. An OS1 search with priority is obtained, but completion is substantially delayed. Before the first priority period expires, the solicitor obtains a second OS1 search. However, another registrable disposition affecting the title was lodged after the first search but before the second search. The buyer completes only after the first priority period has expired and then applies for registration within the second priority period. Which of the following best describes the buyer’s position?
A. The second OS1 automatically extends the first priority period, so the buyer retains priority over the intervening application.
B. The second OS1 replaces the first search retrospectively, so the buyer retains priority provided registration occurs within the second period.
C. The buyer loses priority over the intervening application because the second OS1 creates a new priority period and does not protect against an application lodged before it.
D. The buyer retains priority because any OS1 obtained before completion protects the transfer against all applications lodged before registration.
E. The buyer loses all priority protection because only one OS1 search may be made in relation to the same transaction.
Correct answer: C. The buyer loses priority over the intervening application because the second OS1 creates a new priority period and does not protect against an application lodged before it. Feedback: An official search with priority is a standard pre-completion step within Property Law and Practice, expressly falling within the current SQE1 FLK2 specification. An OS1 search gives a protected registrable disposition priority over relevant applications or interests that are entered on the Land Registry day list after the priority search begins. The priority period normally expires at midnight at the end of the 30th working day after the day on which the search application was received. To obtain the benefit of that priority, the protected application must be entered, or deemed entered, on the day list within that period. The important trap is the effect of obtaining a second OS1 search. A second search does not extend the priority period of the first search. Instead, it creates a new priority period. Crucially, that second search does not confer priority over an application that was already lodged before the second priority period began. Here, the intervening disposition was lodged while the first priority period was still running, so initially it would be postponed to the buyer’s protected transaction. But the buyer failed to lodge the registration application during that original priority period. The second OS1 cannot retrospectively protect the buyer against the intervening application because that application preceded the second search.
The other options are incorrect because:
A is incorrect because a second OS1 creates a fresh priority period rather than extending the first.
B is incorrect because the new search does not operate retrospectively against applications already lodged.
D is incorrect because the timing of the OS1 and the registration application is critical; an OS1 does not provide indefinite protection.
E is incorrect because a further priority search can be made where completion has been delayed, although doing so does not preserve the priority of the earlier search. GOV.UK
SQE1 takeaway: A fresh OS1 can give a buyer a new priority period, but it cannot repair a priority problem that has already arisen between the first and second searches.
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Dr Ioannis (Yannis) Glinavos
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