The branch of law concerned with the preparation of documents for the buying and selling of property (or remortgaging), always handled by a qualified solicitor. The conveyancing process covers many of the legal aspects of the sale/purchase/remortgage such as land registry, local authority searches, freehold and leasehold status, title deeds and much more.
Remortgaging
Changing mortgages without moving home. Property owners chiefly remortgage to get a better deal but some do so to release equity in their homes or to finance home improvements, the costs of which are added to the new mortgage. Even though you’re not moving house, you still need to engage solicitors, conveyancing and the new lender will require the property to be surveyed and valued.
Leasehold
The right to hold or use assets (generally property, but also vehicles) for a fixed period of time at a given price, without transfer of ownership, on the basis of a lease contract. Leasehold ownership of a residential property is simply a long tenancy, the right to occupation and use of the flat for a specified period – the ‘term’ of the lease, which is fixed at the beginning and so decreases in length year by year and the property can be bought and sold during that term. When new, leases are for 99 or 125 years until its eventual expiry, whereupon ownership of the property reverts to the landlord.
Freehold
Permanent and absolute ownership and tenure of a property (residential or commercial) and/or land with freedom to dispose of it at will but with no time limit as to how long the property/land can be held (in perpetuity). Freehold is the opposite of leasehold.
