Legal Jargon

In practical terms, peppercorn rent means the leaseholder pays zero ground rent to the freeholder. All new residential leaseholders are created with peppercorn rent. The phrase originates from the concept that a leaseholder would pay a nominal rent to the freehold owner in acknowledgement of their continuing right over the property in the sum of a single peppercorn – the type that you would usually grind up in a pepper mill.

Approval by the planning authority to the construction, and extension or alteration of a property, or a change of its use, for example from commercial to residential.

Possessory title is a class of legal title given by the Land Registry where absolute legal title evidence is not available, for instance if the original title deeds have been lost or destroyed or the land has been claimed.

A road which is not an adopted highway and therefore not maintained at public expense. Property owners adjoining a private road need to have particular, and preferably documented, rights known as easements over it as it is not necessarily a road that offers public access.

A search to check whether a property in a property transaction may be affected by past or present coal, tin, china clay or other mineral mining.

The formal document used when a lender lends money to a property buyer or existing owner. This may also be described as a Legal Charge. The deed is signed by all parties to the loan and registered against the property at the Land Registry, securing repayment of the load to the lender, either from the borrower via mortgage repayments or when the property is sold, including its sale as part of a person’s estate following their death.

A document from the lender (usually a bank or building society) that sets out the terms against which the lender is prepared to make a loan, including the specific financial details and the period of repayment.

The length of time agreed for the repayment of a loan secured on a property.

The lender who lends a sum against the value of a property and who benefits from the mortgage security. This is usually a bank or building society.

The person or entity borrowing money from the mortgage lender and who is named on the mortgage deed.