Residential Property

Whether you are experienced in purchasing a property or a first time buyer, need assistance from the Help to Buy Scheme, a part exchange or shared ownership arrangement, our expert conveyancers will provide you with straight forward advice to help you through the process.

We will ensure you are given essential advice regarding your ownership of the property. For instance, you may be buying your home in joint names but making unequal contributions so may require a declaration of trust drafting. We will carry out thorough searches and enquiries to make sure there are no detrimental issues affecting the property or your ownership such as new developments in the area or restrictions on your use of the property and will advise you upon any rights and obligations that you may have.  We understand that you want to feel safe and secure in your new home without having unnecessary problems.

From your initial instructions through to exchange of contracts and completion your matter will be dealt with professionally and efficiently.

When you have found a purchaser for your home you need to know that the sale will be completed in a competent manner. Our experienced and capable conveyancing lawyers and support staff will help you through the transaction.

Your purchasers solicitors will raise questions about your property, such as about boundaries, access and what fixtures and fittings you are leaving. They may also ask for copies of documents, such as planning consents. We will help you to provide this information and explain the process to give you the reassurance you need.

We will draft the contract documentation, negotiate the terms of your sale with your purchaser’s solicitors and liaise with your estate agents. We will also ensure that the purchase monies are received before you hand over your keys and arrange for your mortgage to be repaid.

We will discuss with you a completion date and if you are also purchasing another property, make sure that your sale and purchase transactions go smoothly to complete on the same day.

You may want to re-mortgage your home to another provider. This may be to get a better mortgage deal or you may want a further advance to provide money for improvements to your home.

This can still be a stressful time. We aim to make the transaction as stress-free as possible. We will liaise with your mortgage providers, arrange for you to sign the mortgage deed and agree a date when the remortgage will complete.

We are approved by the main lenders to act in re-mortgaging your property so you can rest assured that your matter will be handled professionally and with skill.

Rather than move, you may simply want to change who owns your property. This may be because you want to own the property jointly with a new partner or spouse or you may have separated and need the house transferring into your sole name.  This is known as a transfer of equity, the equity being the amount that you actually own in the property. In other words the value less the amount outstanding on your mortgage.

If you are transferring a property into joint names our specialist team will advise you upon your ownership, such as owning the property in equal or unequal shares and will guide you in deciding which option is best for you. You may want to have a declaration of trust or be referred for advice for a cohabitation or pre-nuptial agreement.

Although a simpler process than buying a property the title deeds still need to be checked to ensure that the transfer can take place and whether there are any charges, such as mortgages, registered against the property. The transfer deed needs to be correctly drafted. If you are having a mortgage, then we will liaise with the mortgage company.

We aim to handle your transaction as swiftly as possible.

Not all properties are registered with the Land Registry. This tends to be the case when no recent transaction of the property has taken place which will have necessitated registration with the Land Registry.

Registration with the Land Registry is always required but not all conveyancers are comfortable in dealing with unregistered properties and may insist on the property being registered prior to completion of the transaction.

In registered conveyancing, title is deduced (shown) by production to the other side of the registered title. In unregistered conveyancing, this is done by production of the title deeds. It is therefore very important to have the title deeds. It is not uncommon that these are held by Banks and Building Societies as a security for the payment of the mortgage. If the mortgage has been paid off, the banks have no right to hold the same and the owners and anyone acting in their place can ask for the bank to return these.

Sometimes deeds get lost either, for example, because they were not sent to the bank and held at the owners’ home or by solicitors who subsequently go out of business, and it may therefore be very difficult to track the location of the deeds.

If title deeds are lost title to the property may still be registered at the Land Registry but the process is a little more long-winded. The owners or their successors would have to explain to the Land Registry how and when the deeds got lost and produce as much evidence of the ownership of the property as possible. Based on these explanations and any possible additional evidence provided, the Land Registry will then take a view as to whether to give absolute title or give what is known as possessory title. If the Land Registry only give possessory title we will explain how that will affect you and the sale.