Jargon buster
We’re always on a mission to hunt down jargon and eliminate it from our communications. But conveyancing has a long attachment to its particular brand of lingo and legal phrasing, and sometimes there’s just no avoiding it. So, for those times when we just need to insert the old-school word we thought a round up of conveyancing blurb and acronyms might be helpful.
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Disbursements: payments we make on your behalf to third parties e.g. stamp duty or for property searches.
Stamp Duty: a tax you pay when purchasing a property; first time buyers are exempt up to £300,000. See here for a calculator on how much you’ll need to pay for your dream home.
Searches: a collection of reports about the land surrounding your new home.
Freehold: you own the building and the land in perpetuity.
Leasehold: you own the property for the length of your lease agreement, you’ll usually pay maintenance fees and annual ground rent.
Peppercorn rent: a token or nominal rent, fairly common on very long leaseholds, can be as small as £1 per annum.
Exchange: solicitors exchange contracts and your moving in date gets arranged.
Completion: you now officially own your new home!
Gazump: a seller reneges on your offer and accepts a higher offer from another buyer.
Chain: a group of buyers and sellers connected in a property chain.
Homebuyers report: a report giving an overall opinion on the condition of a property that helps you decide whether or not to go ahead with the purchase.
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS): RIC surveyors conduct homebuyers reports.
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Mortgage in principle: a document from your lender indicating how much they will lend in order for you to purchase a property, it’s not a full loan agreement at this stage.
Mortgage valuation: an assessment undertaken by the mortgage lender to confirm a property’s value.
Mortgage broker: a person or company that arranges a mortgage between you (the borrower) and a mortgage lender.
Standard variable rate (SVR): an interest rate set by your lender. It is usually based on the Bank of England base rate and so can go up or down.
Early repayment charges (ERC): a fee payable to your mortgage lender for overpayment or leaving your deal early.
Fixed rate mortgage: means your interest rate is guaranteed for a fixed period, usually between 2 and 10 years, so your monthly repayments stay the same.
Interest only mortgage: each month you pay the interest owing, but nothing towards the loan itself. At the end of the period you owe the remaining balance in full.
Tracker mortgage: works on a variable rate by ‘tracking’ a base rate, set by the Bank of England. Your repayments may go up or down depending on current interest rates.
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Sold subject to contract (SSTC): when an offer is accepted, a listing site will update the property to SSTC until completion.
Subject to planning permission (STPP): a property with potential to renovate or convert may have this tag included on its page.
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Get in touch todayWe could go on indefinitely, and it’s likely you’ll see this page being updated every now and then. If you think we’ve missed anything do let us know – we’re always happy to explain any confusing conveyancing terminology. In fact, it brings us joy!
Home move FAQ
If you’re looking for more advice on the home move process, and need help understanding the complex language you may encounter when buying or selling a property, our home move FAQ contains a ton of useful facts that you may find useful.
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If you are buying a property with one or more other people, there are two ways in which you can jointly own property and you must decide which of those two different ways suits you needs and circumstances best. You can decide to own the property as either Joint Tenants or as Tenants in Common.
“Tenant” in this context is NOT the same as someone renting a property.
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Owning property in this way, each person owns the entire property. This means that if one owner were to die, then the surviving owner would own the property entirely. This approach is common for people who want to leave the property to each other after they die and many married people hold their property in this way.
A Will stating otherwise would not be able to override this because the property will have transferred to the survivor before a Will would come into effect. Only the survivor’s Will would then be considered as to who receives a share of the property on their death. This can mean that children from a previous relationship, will not inherit a share of the property, unless the survivor has also included them in their Will.”
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Owning property in this way, each person has a share in the property. That share can be split equally (for example 50/50), or it can be split unequally (for example 75/25). You may choose to unequally split the share in the property if, for example, one person has contributed more towards the home buy than the other person.
This way also allows each person to prepare a Will deciding to leave their share in the property to someone other than the surviving co-owner. For example, leaving the share to children from a previous relationship.
You would need a formal document known as a “Declaration of Trust” in order to register your interests in the property under a Tenancy in Common. We are able to prepare this for you and there is an additional fee for this work.”
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You will need to decide for yourselves between owning as Joint Tenants and Tenants in Common and which approach is best for you and your circumstances. You will need to make your decision, and provide this to us in writing, before the Exchange of Contracts. We are not able to advise you on any taxation implications relating to the options open to you.
Please note that all information provided in this FAQ is for general reference only. It should not be used as a sole or definitive source, nor is it intended to be used for decision making in place of appropriate advice from a qualified legal professional. As such the information is provided as-is and Brevis cannot accept any responsibility or liability for any loss or damage resulting from any errors or omission in, or any reliance on, information contained in this guide.