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Although you will only own a share of the property, in addition to your mortgage and rent, you will be required to pay the entire cost of items such as:
- Council Tax
- Gas, Electricity, Water & phone bills
- Repair and maintenance costs for both the inside & outside of the property
- Buildings and contents insurance
- In some cases, a contribution to maintenance of shared areas, known as Service Charges
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Once you have bought a property you are able to buy additional shares by a process known as ‘staircasing’. The price for additional shares will depend on the value of the property at the time you buy that extra share. This means it will cost more than your first share if property prices have increased. There are also additional costs which will be payable in addition to the price.
Usually staircasing must be in 5% shares or more at a time, however properties purchased from 2021 may allow staircasing of 1% shares at a time.
It should be noted that Shared Ownership properties located in what are known as ‘designated protected areas’ may limit staircasing to a maximum ownership of 80%, and even if this is not the case, it is usually a requirement to sell back to the landlord or another eligible buyer that the landlord nominates.
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Owning a freehold property means that you own the whole of that property including the land it is built on and any rights which come with it (like access or parking for example), for an unlimited period of time. You are also free to enjoy and do with the property as you wish (within reason and subject to things like planning regulations)
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Owning a leasehold property means you only own the property itself and not the rest of the building around it or the land it sits on. The building and the land are owned by the landlord. Leases are also usually only for a limited amount of time, for example 99 years, and you will likely have restrictions on what you can do with your property during that time.
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Aside from any additional legal fees due to the added complexity of buying a leasehold property, there are additional property searches and information that should be obtained, such as obtaining information about the land the property sits on or in the case of a flat, the building the property is situated within and who owns it, and information about the lease and other agreements attached to the property you are buying.
Often the parties involved such as the leasehold management company or the buildings owner often charge for this information, which you should take into account as this can be on average £200-400 and sometimes more. Brevis will obtain and confirm the exact cost once the process is under way and contact has been made with the appropriate organisations, as the amount each charges varies on a property-by-property basis.
There are often additional costs associated with owning a leasehold property and you can find more information here
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Property Searches are a collection of reports which tell us lots of things about the property and surrounding area. These reports include things like the risk of flooding and ground stability as well as information about nearby planning permissions and any restrictions you might have in developing your new home.
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Many law firms will only choose to order Property Searches once they’ve heard back from the seller’s solicitors. But we recognise that waiting for the seller’s solicitor response can cost us valuable time – whether that’s just a day or whether it’s a week, it still adds up. That’s why Brevis orders your Property Searches, where possible, as soon as you’ve completed our sign up process (which by the way only takes a matter of hours and can be fully completed in the comfort of your living room on a mobile phone).
We receive a number of reports within a matter of days. We will review these right away providing you with a guide which highlights some parts of these Reports which might of particular interest to you. We will also share these Reports with you and it is important for you to thoroughly read these for yourself. Please don’t rely solely on our guide as you may miss some factors which are important to you.
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Ordering Property Searches for your new home is a vital part of the home buy process. They reveal information and potential issues that may have an impact on your decision to buy, or might give you guidance on what you need to do in order to protect yourself and your new home.
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A Priority Search is high on the list of importance when buying a property. Once you have committed to buy the property (exchanged contracts) you wouldn’t want anyone else moving the goalposts.
This is where a Priority Search comes in. It’s a request to the Land Registry for an official copy of the title to the property you are buying and is usually done last minute before getting the keys (completion). This is because it ensures and guarantees that no changes are made to that property title while the formalities of the purchase are being wrapped up.
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Moving forward to completion and registering your ownership without conducting the Priority Searches is potentially risky as the search re-confirms that the seller has the right to sell the property to you and shows whether anyone has applied any charges to, or acquired any rights on the property since the original searches were carried out, which can be weeks or sometimes months earlier.
Once the Priority Search comes back ‘clear’ (i.e. it doesn’t show anything of concern) then you get the added benefit of ‘priority’ for 30 days, which ensures that you get exclusive rights on the title of the property and no one can make any further changes to the register before you are registered as the new owner. For this reason, we, like probably all solicitors and conveyancers, undertake this check to protect your interests.