The purchaser ought to try to obtain some relaxation of his obligation to bear the expense of procuring and producing all evidence of title, which is not in the vendor's possession (g). He should ask, according to the vendor's eagerness to sell and the modifications of the contract proposed on the vendor's behalf, that the vendor shall bear either (1) the whole expense of verifying the abstract, or (2) such expenses of the production for verification of the abstract and the examination by the purchaser's solicitors of any documents, which the purchaser can require to be abstracted and which are in the possession of any other person than the vendor, as the vendor would be bound to pay if the said documents were in his own possession, or (3) the like expenses as to documents which can be required to be abstracted and are in the possession of a mortgagee or other incumbrancer. The last of these stipulations ought to be proposed on the purchaser's behalf on every treaty for a private sale (h).

Reservation to vendor of right to rescind the contract.

Expense of verification of the abstract.

(b) Above, p. 62. (c) See above, p. 62.

(d) Davidson, Prec. Conv. vol. ii. pt. i. p. 4, 4th ed.; see above, p. 64.

(e) See 1 Key & Elphinstone, Prec. Conv. 266, n. (b), 4th ed.;

254, n. (d), 8th ed.; above, p. 64, n. (s); and as to the construction of a stipulation so framed, Re Weston and Thomas's Contract, 1907, 1 Ch. 244, 248.

(f) See above, pp. 65, 72.

(g) Above, pp. 33, 47.

The purchaser should object to any stipulation limiting his right to require evidence of identity (i), and should certainly not agree, without good reason shown, to any stipulation more stringent in this respect than the common-form condition on sale by auction (k).

Evidence of identity.

As we have seen (l), an express stipulation, that compensation shall be paid for errors of description, is more favourable to the purchaser than the terms of an open contract: whilst a condition, that no compensation shall be made for such errors, appears more advantageous to the vendor. The stipulation fairest to both parties appears to be that providing for compensation to be allowed by the vendor or the purchaser, as the case shall require, and not restricting the right of compensation to errors discovered before the completion of the sale (m).

Compensation for errors of description.

A purchaser should certainly strike out of a draft contract any provision throwing upon him the expense of getting in any outstanding estate or perfecting the vendor's title, or of the concurrence in the conveyance of any necessary parties besides the vendor (n). In these respects he should stand out for the rights he would have under an open contract (o). This is only reasonable; and we have seen that, under the common form conditions of the Birmingham and other law societies, purchasers on sales by auction are not deprived of these rights (p).

Conveyance.

(h) Such a stipulation is contained in the common form conditions of sale by auotion of the Bristol, Liverpool, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Law Societies; and the Birmingham Law Society conditions are, as we have seen, even more favourable to the purchaser. Above, p. 75, n

(i) See Davidson, Prec. Conv.

Vol. ii. pt. i. pp. 4, 13-16, 4th ed. (k) See above, pp. 33; 65, 72.

(l) Above, p. 65.

(m) A condition of this kind is usually made on sales by order of the Court; 1 Davidson, Prec. Conv.653, 663, 4th ed.; 587,591, 5th ed.; R. S. C. 1883, App. L. No. 15, Sec. 9; see above, p. 66.

The same provision is made on a private sale for apportionment of the rents and outgoings as on a sale by auction (q).

Apportionment of rents and outgoings.

It is invariably asked that the purchaser shall expressly agree to pay interest on his purchase in case of delay in completion (r). But purchasers are advised to object to a stipulation binding them to pay interest on delay in completion arising "from any cause whatever" or " from any cause whatever other than the wilful default of the vendor" (s); not to agree to an excessive rate of interest, as 51. per cent, under the present conditions of the money market; and to stipulate that, if delay in completion shall arise from the state of the title or any other cause except the purchaser's own fault, he may discharge himself of his liability to pay interest by duly appropriating his money to the purchase. Such a stipulation is, as we have seen (t), contained in the common form conditions of sale by auction of the Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, and Manchester Law Societies.

Interest in case of delay-in completion.

A stipulation reserving to the vendor the right of re-sale on any breach of contract by the purchaser appears in well-known books of conveyancing precedents among the provisions usual in private sales (u). But there is certainly no settled practice to include such a condition in a private contract; and if it be inserted on the vendor's behalf, the purchaser's advisers are recommended to strike it out (x).

Re-sale.

In) Above, pp. 67, 73.

(o) Above, p. 47.

(p) Above, p. 75, n. (b).

(q) Above, pp. 67, 74.

(r) Davidson, Prec.Conv. vol. ii. pt. i. p. 4, 4th ed.; 1 Key & Elphinstone, Prec. Conv. 259, 351, 4th ed.; 247, 351, 8th ed.

(s) See above, p. 68.

(t) Above, p. 75, n. (b).

A form of private contract for sale will be found in the Appendix (y).

(u) Davidson, Prec. Conv. vol. ii. pt. i. p. 4, 4th ed.; 1 Key & Elphinstone, Prec. Conv. 268, 351, 4th ed.; 242, 319, 5th ed.;

256, 8th ed.

(x) See Davidson's Concise Precedents, 112, n. (a), 18th ed.

(y) See Appendix B, below.