Reviewing the Report on Title

The Report on Title is provided by your solicitor after they have reviewed the legal papers (e.g. contract and lease) and performed the searches. The searches are important to see if there are any issues with the property that you need to know about before buying it.

For more information on searches, please see the below links:

·      L&C – What are solicitor searches when buying a house

·      HomeOwners Alliance – Local Authority searches explained

If you have read my other posts, you’ll probably have noticed that I like to be prepared.  As I was a first time buyer, I didn’t really know what to expect from this report so it would have been helpful to know the format and what it covers earlier on.  

Now we’ve been through the process, I’m sharing the format of our Report on Title and what each section included. Please note that we bought a new build flat and the reports won’t be the same but hopefully the below will give you a rough idea!

1.     Introduction

·         Name of the developer

·         Name of the company who is referred to as the seller in the legal papers

2.     The Development

·        Number of apartments in the development (split by private and shared ownership)

·        Date planning permission was granted

·        A summary of what the proposal submitted for planning permission covered

·        Any agreements the development is subject to 

·        Any Planning Obligations and whether anything is of a concern to us

·        Any material conditions relevant to our purchase that we should be aware of

·        Any restrictions that we would need to raise to future buyers

3.     Title

·        Findings after the solicitor investigated the title and confirmation of what the title is (e.g. Leasehold)

·        Length of lease and the commencement date

·        Details of any adverse rights, restrictive covenants, onerous covenants or restrictions affecting the title

4.     Findings from the searches:

Searches included:

·        Local Authority Search

·        Environmental Search

·        Drainage and Water Search

·        Chancel Search

The report explained the findings and whether there were any issues. It was also flagged to us that the Local Authority Search only covers the property we are buying.

5.     Enquiries before Contract

Details of preliminary information our solicitors received before receiving the contract papers, which included:

·        Service charge budget

·        Name of management company

·        When landscaping will happen

·        Confirmation that telephone and broadband services will be supplied to the site

6.     Mortgage

·        Advice on Legal Charge will be sent separately

·        All incentives offered to us by the developer will be disclosed to the Lender by our solicitor and that we should also disclose this in the mortgage application

·        The fee we will be charged by the solicitor regarding the mortgage work they will be performing on our behalf

7.     The Deposit

·        When the deposit will be paid to the developer’s solicitor

·        The way in which the developer’s solicitor will hold the deposit (e.g. as agents or stakeholders)

·        Whether the deposit is covered by the warranty (e.g. NHBC warranty) 

·        Anything we should be aware of regarding the deposit

·        Payment method and payment details

8.     Building Guarantee

·        Name of company providing the building guarantee

·        Who will be carrying out the Building Control

9.     Insurance

·        Who will be responsible for arranging the insurance for the apartments and building

·        Who is responsible for arranging the contents insurance

10.  Vacant possession

·        When this will be granted

11.  Agreement

This section highlights the key points from the agreement (contract) that we should be aware of.

12.  SDLT

We were provided with the stamp duty rates.

13.  The Lease

This section highlights the key points from the lease that we should be aware of. For tips in understanding your lease, see this post.

14.  Exchange of Contracts

·      There would be an abortive fee charged by the solicitor if we do not proceed with the transaction after exchange of contracts

·      Action for us to keep them updated regarding any changes to our contact details

We read through the report and raised queries with our solicitor.

Our queries included:

·        Clarification of any legal terms that we were not familiar with. Our solicitor was great at explaining and very patient with us when we asked these questions!

·        Anything unusual we spotted

·        Follow up on issues raised in the report to understand what the risks and implications were

For more posts about the conveyancing process, please see below!

·      Next steps after an offer has been accepted

·      Starting the conveyancing process

·      Overview of our conveyancing process

·      Tips for understanding your lease

·      How to compare documents using Google Docs

Jess