News -> House Survey

Reading has seen a higher increase than the average of its county and so is one of the many areas in England and Wales where the house prices are still escalating. The average house price in Berkshire has increased by 3% compared with the previous year. Reading is a popular commuter town as...

When a joint owner dies the surviving owner needs to remove the deceased owner's name. The process is simple, however the work is normally undertaken by a conveyancing solicitor. Once you complete the form it is sent to the Land Registry with an official copy of the deceased's death certificate and...

Although since July 2018 London has seen houses prices in many of its boroughs either levelling off or even falling, Guildford is one of many areas in England and Wales where house prices are still rising. Guildford, popularly considered to be Surrey's county town, continues to be a highly...

The stamp duty land tax (SDLT) for shared ownership purchases differs compared to standard purchase and staircasing (read more about stamp duty for staircasing here) as you have 2 different options for paying. You can either pay the stamp duty on the full market value or on the share you are...

The issue of dangerous cladding fitted to many tower blocks throughout the UK has come to prominence since the awful fire at Grenfell Tower. The tragedy has had many knock-on effects; one of the major ones being the position of leaseholders who currently live in tower blocks which have unsafe...

The Land Registry charges Registration Fees when making changes to the title documents held at the Land Registry in England and Wales. Transactions fall into one of two fee scales and the what your transaction is refletcs which of the two bands you are in: Transactions that fall under Scale...

Many expect the transfer of equity process to be fairly straightforward; especially if it is just an owner of a property wanting to release their equity to a joint owner or a new owner. This can be the case when there isn't a mortgage lender and this is why there are many transfer of equity...

Remortgaging early, or even selling early, is something you'd normally consider if, for example, there's a preferential mortgage rate to change to, you want to move house or because the relationship with your joint owner has broken down and you need to sell your property. The issue though is how...

Epitome of title consists of a schedule of all the documents of title along with photocopies of the documents themselves assembled for deducing the title to unregistered land to prove your ownership. It's needed for proving you have the right to sell the property and the existence of things like...

Personal guarantees by directors of a company are often required by lenders when that company borrows a large sum of money, whether for the purpose of buying a property - in which case the money would be a mortgage loan - or some other reason. If the company defaults on repayments, the...

Interest-only retirement mortgages are interest-only mortgages where you don't have to repay the principal of the loan until you die or move permanently into long term care. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (click to view the FCA's relevant legal instrument) gave its seal of approval...

Most mortgage products include within their terms a Mortgage Early Repayment Charge (ERC) that is payable if you repay your mortgage within the early repayment charge period. The period of time normally ties into an incentive period such as a fixed rate of 2, 3 or 5 years so if you repay your...