David Inch

We recently acted for a property developer who had bought a plot of land with the benefit of Outline Planning Permission for three houses.  After checking the boundaries as per the title deeds, and the site itself, it became apparent that they did not match and the discrepancy needed to be rectified before completion could take place.

It also became apparent from the physical inspection of the site that a surface water drain serving the owner of the plot of land adjacent to the development site, and who had sold the site originally, ran under the development site but no right had been reserved in her favour to formalise her continued right to use the same.

Our developer client accepted my suggestion that the neighbour be offered a Deed of Easement in respect of the surface water drainage in return for her assistance in preparing a definitive plan of the site, and the plan was prepared quickly.

Initially, the Land Registry refused to accept that the title boundaries were wrong but on my insistence the site was surveyed by an Ordnance Survey Surveyor who concurred with my view, and the title plan was updated accordingly.

The terms of the Deed of Easement were quickly agreed and executed by both parties.

Our client was pleased that the cause of potential delays in its sale of the three properties had been rectified before building works began.  The development was very successful and all three properties quickly sold at list price, despite the current state of the housing market.

By resolving the problem that our had identified before the development started my client was able to avoid delays in its prospective sales and was able to make huge savings on the interest that it would otherwise have had to pay to its bank

We were recently instructed by a couple who wanted to purchase a buy-to-let property to rent out.  They had already found a property that they wished to purchase, had lined up tenants to let the same and wanted to proceed quickly.

we always make a point of trying to find out as much information as possible about the transaction at the outset, which proved very useful in this instance.  

We was able to discover that my clients were remortgaging their own property to raise the deposit needed to purchase the buy-to-let property.

As a consequence, we was able to conduct both transactions simultaneously, to the obvious benefit of my clients as they were anxious to proceed quickly.

The purchase proved to be complicated.  Whilst my clients believed that they were purchasing a freehold property from a mortgagee in possession it transpired that all the mortgagee in possession was entitled to sell was the leasehold interest, as their former borrower had owned the property on a Shared Ownership basis.  In such cases the freehold interest is always retained by the Housing Association.

We persuaded the seller’s solicitors to action the staircasing provisions under the provisions of the Shared Ownership Lease. The Housing Association then performed its own valuation and accepted that the price being paid by my clients reflected the true market value of the property 

We co-ordinated the efforts of both the solicitors for the Housing Association and the mortgagee in possession to achieve a simultaneous purchase of both the freehold and leasehold interests, by my clients, and they have subsequently been registered as the freehold owners of the property.

Despite being somewhat complicated from a conveyancing perspective we were able to complete both my clients remortgage and their purchase within a month of obtaining instructions, and without the clients’ losing their prospective tenants. 

Our team have an expertise in shared ownership leases.  They are becoming an increasingly important part of conveyancing – particularly for first time buyers hoping to get onto the property ladder for the first time.

We had a good working relationship with the Housing Association’s solicitors and were encouraged by them to apply to the Housing Association to have the firm added to their panel of preferred solicitors. We made the application and were delighted when they agreed to add the firm to their panel.

The benefit of being so appointed became very apparent following the recent launch of a new site of ten units that the Housing Association were about to offer to prospective purchasers.  

Before the launch we asked to review the contract documentation for the site.  All of our legal enquiries relating to the site were answered, and our amendments to the contract and lease documents were approved, before the launch.

We visited the site to meet the Housing Association’s sales representative and agreed a scale of legal costs for their prospective purchasers.

The launch weekend was very successful and we took instructions from six prospective purchasers to do their conveyancing.

Having previously approved the documentation we were able to deal with the conveyancing aspects for all six purchasers very quickly and all were very pleased to move into their new homes within a month of instructing us.

The Housing Association was equally pleased as all of the purchases were completed before their year end, which was important to them for funding reasons.