At some time in our lives we all have to sign or read something that contains confusing legal jargon. If you’ve ever moved house or rented a property then you will know what a difficult job it can be to wade through contracts full of legal terms. Conveyancing Executive Charlene Rimmer says, “Unfortunately, it is necessary to use these words and phrases in legal documents but here’s a short explanation of some of the ones used when dealing with property issues.”
- Conveyance – historically this has been used as a document but now renamed as a ‘transfer’ which transfers property from the seller to the buyer
- Covenant – a promise contained in a deed
- Deed – a signed or sealed document which states legal ownership of property
- Estate – has two meanings – 1. Property and assets owned by a person at the time of death and 2. referring to ownership of land, either freehold or leasehold
- Execute – to sign a document
- Freehold – ownership of land and any buildings on it (opposite to leasehold)
- Joint tenants – If you hold a property as Joint Tenants then if one of you dies, the share belonging to them passes automatically to the surviving joint tenant(s). This would be the case even if the deceased had made a will giving all their property to someone else.
- Tenants in common – This is where more than one person holds shares in a property. This option is normally chosen by unrelated persons buying for investment or other cases where it is simple unacceptable for the share of one to pass to the other on death.
- Lease – contract normally signed by owner and freeholder of the land or property it contains rights granted/reserved and covenants
- Leasehold – property or land reverts back to the owner when the lease expires
- Legal Charge – sometimes used as a legal term in place of ‘mortgage’
- Power of Attorney – allows another person to act on your behalf
- Register – refers to Land Registry , the body that records property ownership details in England and Wales
- Office Copy Entries – online Deed kept by the Land Registry
- Disbursements – third party costs i.e. searches
- Vendor – is an old term for the seller
- Lessee – the owner of a lease hold property
- Lessor – the person who leases or lets the property i.e. landlord
We have offices in the Christchurch, New Milton and the New Forest. Our Conveyancing team also cover Bournemouth and Poole. For a free initial chat, please call 01202 499255 and a member of the team will be happy to discuss any questions that you may have.
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