Property and land isn’t always bought and sold. Sometimes, our clients simply want to give property or land to family or associates for tax reasons or other personal reasons. We can advise you and prepare the appropriate paperwork to transfer the property or land.

If you own property and land with at least one another person, you should have a written record of what happens to your share in the property or land when one owner dies.

If property and land is owned by two or more people, it is owned either as ‘joint tenants’ or ‘tenants in common’. The two labels have nothing to do with ‘tenancies’. These labels clarify what happens to your share in property or land if you sell or when you die. Co-ownership is not set in stone and it is possible to change from one type of ownership to another.

Joint Tenants – this means that if one person dies, their share passes to the surviving owners, regardless of what they may have put in a will or other document.

Tenants in Common – this means that if one person dies, their share does not pass automatically on death to the surviving person(s). Instead, the share passes according to that person’s will or under the rules of Intestacy if there is no will.

If you are taking out a mortgage for the first time or are changing from one mortgage lender to another, you will need a solicitor. As we are panel members of all major banks and building societies, your mortgage lender will trust us to deal with the legalities and we will carry out the necessary checks and searches and manage the mortgage money for you.

Our homes are usually one of our greatest assets but for some people, having all that money tied up in their property doesn’t help them when they need a lump sum of money to enjoy in their retirement or to help with day to day living costs. An equity release scheme should not be entered into without considering all the advantages and disadvantages which is something we can help you with. The legal process is very similar to a mortgage.

If property or land hasn’t changed hands for a long time the chances are that the property will be unregistered title.  In those cases the title deeds are usually a large bundle of documents showing the change in ownership of the land from one person to the other. Those deeds are usually the only copies and if that bundle of deeds was ever lost or damaged, it would be very difficult and costly to replace them.

In these circumstances we strongly recommend that you voluntarily register your title deeds with the Land Registry so that all the information in the bundle is copied on to a central database with the Land Registry. Every time there is a change of ownership or mortgage etc., the Land Registry updates the deeds.

As unregistered land becomes rarer we do, from time to time, encounter other legal professionals who do not have the skills to deal with unregistered land.  As a result they will often insist that the land is registered voluntarily before they deal with the transaction.  This inevitably causes delays.

We can deal with this voluntary registration process for you.

If you have occupied land for a long period of time without the permission of the land owner, you may be able to make an application to claim ownership of that land.

We can advise you on the merit of your claim and make the application to the Land Registry on your behalf.

As a landlord, we can advise you about your obligations toward your tenants and we can we can prepare a tenancy agreement for you.

As a tenant, we can advise you about your obligations as a tenant and the terms of a tenancy agreement.

We are able to advise both Landlord and Tenants in connection with agricultural tenancies be it a Full agricultural tenany, Farm Business tenancy or a simple grazing agreement.