Plain-English guides to buying, selling, renting and owning property in England: the contracts, the paperwork and the rights behind them.
Owning property comes with protections that are easy to miss until something goes wrong. These are the ones our readers ask about most.
Once your ownership is registered at HM Land Registry, the register is the proof of title, and the state pays compensation if it is wrong through no fault of yours.
Title registers and plans are public. Before exchange you can check who owns the land, which charges are secured on it and what covenants bind it.
Under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, an adjoining owner who plans certain works to a shared wall or close to your foundations has to serve notice first.
If you own a flat on a lease, you can ask for a summary of the costs behind your service charge and apply to the First-tier Tribunal if a charge is unreasonable.
Many owners of long leases may claim a lease extension or join neighbours to buy the freehold, subject to qualifying rules.
Light received through a window without interruption for twenty years can become a legal right that later building work must respect.
Over the years, I’ve seen too many sales stall not because of a bad survey or a difficult buyer, but because the seller’s paperwork wasn’t ready when it was needed. Selling a house in England is at heart a document-driven process: get the forms and certificates in order early, and the conveyancing tends to move […]
When you’re buying a leasehold flat in England, you’re not just buying bricks and mortar. You’re stepping into a web of legal relationships, financial obligations, and management structures that simply don’t exist with a freehold house. The flat itself might look perfect, but the lease, the service charge history, the ground rent provisions, and the […]
When you’re buying or selling a home in England, the process eventually narrows down to two distinct legal moments: exchange of contracts and completion. They are not interchangeable, and treating them as one event is a recipe for confusion. Exchange is the point at which the deal becomes legally binding; completion is when ownership actually […]
