When it comes to buying your first property, it’s really easy to get confused. There’s so much to understand, a lot of big processes going on and a lot of excitement at every stage. But there’s also an awful lot of terms to learn when you’re buying or selling a house. Especially once a conveyancer gets involved. From start to finish, buyers are expected to understand a lot of language that they probably won’t need at any other time in their lives. So today, we wanted to give all of our lovely buyers (and sellers) a hand and do some jargon-busting in the world of conveyancing.
Chain
This is the line of buyers and sellers who are all involved in property transactions that are linked together. If one of those transactions falls through or breaks, it can affect the sale of properties further down the chain, and can hold up transactions until it’s fixed.
Chain Free
This is when your purchase doesn’t rely on other people selling their properties. For example, a first time buyer purchasing a property from an older person going into care, who isn’t buying another property, would be considered a chain free purchase.
Completion Date
This is the date in the contract that ownership of the property passes from one person to another. So from this date, the buyer legally owns the property, and can move in.
Completion Statement
This is a financial statement that confirms how much money is due to be paid to you once completion is done, or how much money you need to pay to complete the purchase. This will look different depending on which side of the transaction you are.
Contract
This is a written agreement between the buyer and the seller. Once read and signed, it becomes legally binding. It gives the full details of the property in question, the transaction and all of the other terms and conditions of the sale that have been agreed.
Conditions of Sale
These are the conditions that the buyer and seller agree on in the contract. There are some basics that are always included in these contracts, but you can also discuss and add in conditions to meet your needs.
Conveyancer
That’s us! Essentially a property lawyer that manages all of the legal bits of a property transaction. In some firms that will be a qualified solicitor, in others it will be a specialist in conveyancing, as it is with Hudson Conveyancing.
Disbursement
Any additional fees that are incurred in the buying of property, like Land Registry fees and stamp duty, which you will need to pay.
Deeds
Documents that provide the history of the property ownership as well as your ownership of it. Deeds are now largely redundant, as most property in England and Wales is registered at the Land Registry, so records can be found easily. But if your purchase is the first registration with the Land Registry, then a conveyancer might need the historical deeds to do the appropriate checks.
Equity
This is the difference between the sale price of your property and the mortgage that is secured against the property. For example, if you sell your house for £100,000 and the outstanding mortgage is £80,000, the equity is £20,000.
EPC
EPC stands for Energy Performance Certificate and tells you how energy efficient the property is. All domestic and commercial properties have one. They use a rating system from A-G to measure how efficiently the property uses energy, and are done by an independent assessor. You will be able to see the date the assessment was done, and details of the findings on the EPC report.
Exchange of Contracts
This is the point where a sale becomes legally binding, and a completion date is formally agreed. At this point, neither the seller or the buyer can change their minds or back out of the sale.
Fixtures and Fittings
A comprehensive list of items that are included with the property, and should not be removed from the property at completion. Buyers can negotiate any items on the fixtures and fittings list they would like to be included, for examples carpets and curtains.
Freehold
A word to describe the ownership held over a house of land. Most houses in England and Wales are freehold, which means that you own the property for an indefinite period of time. Essentially, if you own a property or land freehold, you own it forever until you sell it.
Gazumping
This is a slightly odd term, but essentially it means that the seller of the property you’re interested in accepts another, higher offer on the property, even though they had previously agreed on an offer from you. Your conveyancer might tell you you’ve been ‘gazumped’, and whether or not they think you can make a counteroffer that would be considered. Most of the time, there isn’t a good way back.
That’s all we have room for today – and we’ve only got to the letter G! We’re going to keep running through the entire A-Z of conveyancing until you can understand every word your conveyancer says, and feel confident in the property buying process. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about any of the terms we’ve talked about today, or if you want some advice on the conveyancing process, we’d love to help. Just get in touch with us today to book your free consultation visit.
Comments