Legal Jargon

A right attached to the title of a property such as a right of access over private lanes or paths, or rights to connect into services such as water pipes and cables. Easements may be benefits to a property and its owners, and they may also be considered to be burdens, example a right to situate a septic tank on a neighbour’s land and access it.

Legal promises or obligations set out in the title deeds. Covenants may restrict how a property is used, for example, blocking its use for any purposes other than a residential dwelling, or obliging a title holder to undertake certain actions or expenditure on, for example, maintenance, or to make additional payments if planning consent is granted at some point in the future.

A declaration of trust is a legally binding agreement between joint owners of a property and/or anyone else who has a beneficial or financial interest in the property.

A document or deed that either creates new covenants or confirms that the new owner of a property will take on existing covenants to ensure they continue to exist with each transfer of the land.

This is the term for a document or deed that was used to transfer ownership of property from one person to another without any payment being made. Deeds of gift are now obsolete and will not be accepted by the Land Registry. If you wish transfer property for no financial return you would need to use a Transfer for Nil Value.

A document used to confirm that one person agrees to be responsible for someone else’s debt or mortgage obligations should that person fail to carry out their own obligations.

A document used to confirm that a lender agrees that their already-registered charge (mortgage) will be ranked below a new one and that any further payments will be used to clear off the new charge’s debt before theirs. Everyone still gets paid, as long as there is enough equity in the property to cover all the charges, but the order in which the charges are settled has changed.

A document used to make adjustments to the way a deceased person’s estate is distributed.

A search to establish that a property is not registered as common land or part of a village green. If it is, then other parties may have rights over the land concerned.

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a planning charge, introduced by the Planning Act 2008 as a tool for local authorities (LAs) in England and Wales to help deliver infrastructure to support the development of their area. The levy gives LAs the power to require developers to pay sums of money to fund infrastructure that is needed as a result of the development such as new or safer road schemes, flood defences, schools, hospitals, green spaces and leisure centres.