Conveyancing
Survey or Valuation – What’s the difference?
The Valuation Report
When buying a house with a mortgage, this report is obtained by the mortgage lender. A valuer will visit the property to give a basic opinion to the lender as to whether or not it is sufficient security for the loan you have applied for i.e. whether on consideration of the value and condition of the property, it is worth the mortgage lender making a loan to you secured on the house.
What is a FENSA Certificate?
New regulations apply to replacement windows and doors installed since 1st April 2002.
Replacement windows, rooflights, roof windows and glazed doors (more than 50% glass) have to comply with FENSA Regulations/Building Regulations.
What is a Land Charge Search?
This search is undertaken shortly before completion takes place to ensure that no financial charges have been registered against the property which have not been disclosed by the seller.
What is an Index Map Search?
This search has to be made in all cases when you are buying unregistered land i.e. a property that has not yet been registered at HM Land Registry, if it is not provided by the seller’s solicitors with the draft contracts and supporting papers.
What is a Flood Search?
According to a recent article published in the Law Society’s Property in Practice magazine, currently 2.2 million homes in the UK are classed as being at flooding risk (equal to 1 in 10 homes).
What is an Environmental Search?
The Problem
HOMEBUYERS are often unaware that although the house they purchase may be in good condition, the land upon which it is built may not be. This is something the usual searches will not uncover. The local search will not reveal any landfill sites, waste disposal dumps or whether the land is at risk from contamination, toxic emissions, flooding, subsidence or radioactivity. It has been found that there are over 250,000 sites, which have been filled, and that there are over 400,000 industrial sites, which are no longer in existence, which may have contaminated land. Many of these sites may have already been built on to provide housing. Landfill waste disposal and old industrial land are known as “brownfield” sites. The principle caveat emptor “the buyer beware” applies and if you purchase land that is contaminated, you may be liable to pay for the clean-up costs of the pollution created by former owners.
What is a Company Search?
This search is compulsory where you are purchasing a property from a company.
The search is undertaken in order to check that the company exists, is not subject to insolvency and has not been struck off the Register at Companies House.
What is a Commons Search?
The search is made of the register which is held under the Commons Registration Act and it will confirm whether the land is a village green or common. If it is, then you need to be made aware, because there could be entries such as the grazing of livestock on your front garden. If a registration is revealed, then you will probably not be able to fence off the boundaries of the property or develop it by making alterations or extensions.
What is a Chancel Search?
This search is commissioned to reveal whether or not the property you are proposing to purchase may be affected by a potential “Chancel Repair” obligation to the local Parish Church. Such obligations stem from mediaeval times where land, previously owned by the Church to fund the local rector, had been sold and the new owner took on the repairing obligation attached to that land. Basically, any property located within the boundaries of a Parish where such a liability exists could be “caught”. The penalty is financial in that it involves having to pay for the upkeep and repair of the chancel of the local mediaeval parish church.
What is a Bankruptcy Search?
This search is undertaken on behalf of the mortgage lender to ensure that the buyer has not been made bankrupt. Where there is more than one buyer, a search must be undertaken against each buyer’s full name.