Our eminent residential property expert, Ross Ward, answers your questions about moving home. If you’d like him to answer a question about buying or selling, email your query to marketing@tayloremmet.co.uk
My solicitor has told me he is going to check the title deeds of the property I am buying. What does this entail?
The vendor’s solicitor will send your solicitor a contract for him to examine and approve with a copy of the Land Registry certificate, which will reveal whether the property is freehold or leasehold, the length of the lease and how much ground rent is payable.
It will confirm the vendors are the actual owners of the property and if there are any mortgages registered against it. Your solicitor will need to ensure these are repaid on or before you complete the purchase.
The certificate will also state whether the property has the benefit of, or is subject to, any rights of way and if there are any restrictions on what you can do there, for example, you may be prevented from running a trade or business from home.
There will be a plan of the property attached to the certificate and your solicitor will normally send you a copy or show it to you when you sign the contract, to make sure it corresponds with what you think you are buying.
Finally, once your solicitor has reviewed the contract and the certificate, he will write to the vendor’s solicitor to clear up any queries that have come to light.
I have been told that, although the property I am buying has fences on both sides, I will only be responsible for the right hand boundary. Is this true?
Not necessarily. You should check the plans for the property against the title deeds, looking for ‘T’ marks on the boundaries. The house builder will have originally allocated responsibility and a ‘T’ on your side of a fence indicates you are obliged to maintain it, whereas a ‘T’ on your neighbour’s side means it is their responsibility.
If ‘Ts’ are not shown on the deeds the easiest solution is to come to a compromise with your neighbours and suggest sharing the maintenance equally.
I have just exchanged contracts on the house I am buying and my solicitor says he needs time to do searches before completion. I thought these were carried out before exchange. Please clarify?
Your solicitor will normally carry out a local council search and a mining search before you exchange contracts to make sure nothing is registered against the property at the council and there has been no mining activity you should be aware of.
Just before completion, your solicitor will want to carry out a Land Registry search to make sure there have been no recent changes affecting the vendor’s title deeds. For example, they have not taken out another mortgage against the house and legal ownership has not changed.
If you need a mortgage, a bankruptcy search will also be carried out on behalf of the lender to make sure you, as both the purchaser and the borrower, have not recently been declared bankrupt. No bank or building society will lend money to someone who is insolvent and they require a clear search before releasing the advance you need to buy the house.
These searches only take a few days and do not normally hold up the moving date, unless any adverse results are revealed.
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