G L O S S A R Y 3 3 Indemnity insurance: Insurance taken out by conveyancing firms to cover losses to clients, arising from errors or fraud in dealing with their matters. Land Registry: A government office that stores records of land ownership and any charges against the property such as a mortgage. Land Registry fees: Fees paid to register the ownership of property with the Land Registry. Leasehold: A leasehold property means you have the right to live in it and occupy the land it is on for a fixed period of time - the length of your lease. This can be a varying term but commonly 99 years, 125 years or 999 years. Legal fee: The charge made by a solicitor or licensed conveyancer for carrying out the conveyancing and other legal work connected with buying and selling a property. Licensed conveyancer: This is a specialist lawyer who is trained and qualified in all aspects of buying and selling property. Mortgage deposit: The upfront payment towards part of the of the property purchase price. Typically, it’s around 20% but can be more, or less. Also known as a Down Payment, or Home Loan Deposit. Mortgage deed: This is an agreement, which transfers legal title to your property to the mortgage lender. It remains dormant unless you don’t repay the mortgage. If this happens, the lender can repossess your home. Offers over: This is the lowest price a seller will accept. Open house or open viewing: House hunters are given a time of a few hours when they can all go and view the home for sale rather than in separate viewings. Property questionnaire: Sellers provide an accurate account of the property including: Council Tax band, Local Authority notices served on it, any alterations made, any history of flooding, parking, and arrangements covering the repair and maintenance in place for flats. Searches: These are done by your lawyer to check if there’s anything that could affect the value of the property. You must have a Local Authority Search before exchanging contracts. Share of freehold: This is when the freehold of the property is owned by a limited company and the shareholders are the owners of the property, usually the owners of flats within that building. Stamp Duty: This is a tax charged on the purchase price of every home sold in England, Wales and Northern Ireland over a certain price. Current rates of stamp duty tax can be viewed via the GOV.UK website. Survey: This is carried out by a qualified building surveyor to check the structure for any faults. Home buyers can choose from three main types of survey. See also Valuation Survey. Subject to contract: This means a contract is not legally binding until contracts are exchanged and the details of the contract have been agreed. Subject to survey: An offer is usually made ‘subject to survey’ and it’s a provisional price depending on what the survey reveals. The results can often lead to negotiation on the price if expensive faults are uncovered. Title deeds: The ownership documents which have a description of the property and land you own, as well as any rights and conditions attached to it. Transfer document: The final legally binding document that transfers the property and all its rights from the seller to the buyer. Valuation survey: This is done by the lender’s surveyor to verify the property is worth the purchase price for mortgage purposes.
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