Chambers & Hind Solicitors

Is your property registered?

A large number of properties in the Stapleford area are not registered with the Land Registry...

If your property is not registered with the Land Registry, then the only way that it can be proved that you are the owner of the property is the examination of your Title Deeds. If your property is registered, an Official Copy of the Register and Title Plan for your property can be obtained from the Land Registry - This can be used as proof of ownership of your property in substitution for a bundle of deeds.

A sale could be lost as a result of delays and problems with the Title documents. Having a Land Registry official copy avoids this. The Land Registry welcomes voluntary registration of properties. Land Registry fees are lower on voluntary registration than those that would be applicable in respect of transferring the property. If you carry out first registration of your property before you sell, you are much less likely to have conveyancing-related problems in connection with your sale than if your property was unregistered.

Looking to retirement?
Even if you are not looking to move house there is another good reason for voluntarily registering your property with the Land Registry. You may want, at some point, to release some of the equity locked up in your home by taking out an equity release mortgage, which is a mortgage that is repaid upon your death or when you permanently move into residential care. You are likely to receive the funds from an equity release mortgage more quickly if your Title is registered as opposed to unregistered.

How we can help you...
The likely cost of first registration of a property is in the region of Ł500, which at face- value may seem quite a lot. However, this could be a very small sum in comparison to the amount that could be lost if a sale fell through as a result of delays and problems with your Title to the property. And we can handle the legal work on an equity release mortgage too.

We can easily establish for you if you are unsure, whether your property is registered or unregistered with the Land Registry.

Contact Mark McKeown or Val Goodwin. Click on the link to send an e-mail to us or phone (0115) 949 1141.

Home Information Packs

Do you intend to sell your property? – You need a HIP and we can help.

It has been a legal requirement since the autumn of 2008 that if you wish to sell your property you must first have produced a Home Information Pack, commonly known as a HIP. A HIP is in essence information about your property that can be read by a prospective purchaser [or their legal advisers] prior to any offer made on the property. At Chambers & Hind, we can arrange for a HIP to be produced on your behalf at a cost of Ł300 plus VAT. This cost is purely the sum that the HIP provider charges us. We don’t add anything extra. Naturally we hope that when you agree a sale you will instruct us to carry out the conveyancing on your behalf and having been involved in preparing the HIP we would have a head start in progressing your sale.

An estate agent may offer to arrange a Home Information Pack for you but it will belong to that estate agent and if you wish to market the property with another agent, the original agent may be unwilling to release it – so you would be put to the expense of having another Information Pack produced. In contrast, a Home Information Pack produced through Chambers & Hind would belong to you and so you would have full flexibility in terms of which agent or agents you used to market the property.

For further details please contact Mark McKeown or Val Goodwin on 0115 9491141.

Negative Equity

Do you want to sell your property but seem trapped because you owe your mortgage lender more than it is currently worth?

There may be a way out!

Given the reduction in house prices over the last 12 to 15 months, many home owners now are close to or are in negative equity. This means that the amount that the homeowner owes to their mortgage lender is more than the current value of the property. It could easily be the case that you are in this situation and may want to sell your property particularly if you are experiencing financial difficulties.

It could be the case that your lender will agree to what is termed an “Agreed Shortfall”. This means that it will allow you to sell your property on the basis that some of the money that you owe it will be paid back, after you have completed your sale, on an unsecured loan basis. The advantage to you is that if you are in financial difficulty and you sell the property at an Agreed Shortfall, the amount of debt from the sale that you are likely to have is much less than would be the case if the property were eventually re-possessed by the lender and sold.

Statistically, a property that is sold by an owner-occupier obtains a much better price than a property that is sold by a lender in possession. Also, if the property is sold at an Agreed Shortfall, then it is much less likely that there will be an adverse effect upon your credit rating than if you fall seriously into arrears and your property is re-possessed and sold by your lender.

If you are in negative equity and are considering selling your property then Mark McKeown at this office would be happy to discuss with you the initial steps that you should take.

This firm is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.