Residential Property

Information about a property’s Council Tax band valuation can be found by clicking here. If any alterations or improvements have been made to a property since it was last valued for Council Tax the sale of the property may trigger a revaluation.

A listed building is a building that has been placed on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest kept under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.

Additional consents will be required from the local authority before works can be carried out to a listed building. You will need listed building consent for most internal works to the building as well as for external alterations or extensions even if they would not normally require planning permission. Listed building consent will also be required if a listed building is to be wholly or partly demolished. It may also be necessary to obtain the approval of English Heritage to any proposal.

Carrying out works to a listed building, without obtaining the necessary consents, is a criminal offence. If you purchase a listed property in which unauthorised works have previously been carried out, the planning authority has the power to take enforcement action against you and insist that the property is reinstated to its original form.

There is no time limit for enforcement action to be taken by the planning department. We would therefore always recommend that if you are purchasing a listed building, during the course of the purchase and prior to exchange you obtain a copy of the listing from English Heritage and attend the property with a surveyor to check that no unauthorised works have been carried out.

The English Heritage website provides lots of detailed informaiton on listed buildings www.english-heritage.org.uk. If you are planning to carry out works to your listed building I would strongly recommend that you discuss the works with the planning authority to ensure that consent can be obtained, before proceeding any further.

A seller is under no obligation to disclose to you any faults the property you are purchasing may have. We therefore advise every buyer that they take a significant risk if they do not have a survey carried out. We can give you details of local surveyors or a comprehensive list of fully qualified surveyors can be found on the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors website.

The NICEIC is the UK’s leading voluntary regulatory body for the electrical contracting industry. It has been assessing the electrical competence of electricians for over fifty years and currently maintains a roll of over 26,000 registered contractors. For more information click here.

The Planning Portal is the Government’s online planning and building regulations resource for England and Wales. This is the first port of call for anyone wanting to know more about the planning system and how it works. It is also extremely useful for guidance on windows and other alterations that you may wish to carry out to your house.

For more information on planning permission and building regulations read our articles

• Thinking of extending your property?
• Building Regulations

If you are planning on replacing the windows or doors on your property you may need buildings consent. However if you instruct a company or contractor registered with a competent persons scheme you will not need to make an application. The most common self certification scheme is FENSA.

Read our article on replacing windows here.

If you are thinking of putting your property on the market, or indeed your property is on the market but a sale has not yet been agreed, there are a number of things that you can be doing to help your sale to go through quickly and smoothly, once the right buyer comes along. Too many sellers instruct a solicitor only once the sale is agreed.  This can cause a delay in their solicitor being able to collate title documents and prepare the legal title for sale. If your solicitor is instructed prior to a sale being agreed, your solicitor will have more time to investigate your property title fully.  This will mean that any quirks or abnormalities with your title can be ironed out and dealt with at an early stage, often before they even become a problem.

It is a great idea to start collating all of the documents you have relating to the property: guarantees, warranties, certificates, planning consents and any other associated documents which will be called for once the sale is agreed. Start to think about which fixtures and fittings you intend to keep and which you intend to take with you. You will also be required to complete an inventory at the outset of the transaction.

Essentially, the better prepared you are for your sale, the easier the process should be for both you and your purchaser.  This is of course a benefit to both parties and enables both of you to achieve the goal that you are both aiming for – a stress-free sale or purchase.

The Environment Agency are responsible for waste regulation (drainage and sewerage), contaminated land and conservation and ecology amongst other things. Their website also has information about the environment. You can find out if you are in a flood risk area and can sign up to receive flood warnings from the agency. They also offer advice on how to protect your property from flooding.

Click here to read our article on flooding and the increased risks associated with paving your garden.

An NHBC guarantee is a structural defects guarantee valid for a period of ten years from the date it is issued.  This warrants that the property was built according to minimum building and design requirements for construction and finish, including statutory Building Regulations.

The Scheme is split into two periods.  The first is for damage or defects to the property which occur during the first two years from the date of legal completion, the second is for damage to specified parts of your home (essentially the structural elements) in years 3 to 10.

On the sale of the property within the 10 year period, the balance of the cover can be transferred to the new owner.

In essence the warranty protects you against the cost of having to rectify inherent structural defects discovered within 10 years of the property’s construction.  Should you discover any such problems in the first two year period your first step should be to contact the original builder/vendor and ask them to rectify the situation.  If they fail to do so or you are within the second phase of cover, NHBC will step in to mediate on your behalf in the first instance, and cover the cost of remedial work.

Buying a freehold property means that the property and the land on which it stands will be fully owned by you as the purchaser.  Houses are usually freehold. A service charge or ground rent is not usually payable unless you are sharing services or facilities (for example a shared driveway) with other property owners.

Buying a leasehold property means that your right to hold or use the property is granted by the freeholder under a lease for a fixed number of years.  Flats are usually leasehold.  Ground rent on the lease is paid annually by the leaseholder to the freeholder. A service charge is also often payable.  This is the contribution determined by and paid to the freeholder towards the cost of maintaining the building and/or estate that the property is in.  Often the freeholder will employ a management company to manage the day to day running of the building on its behalf, which will include the collection of ground rent and service charge.  The freeholder’s prior consent will usually be required for any alterations you wish to carry out to the property.

When you are selling your home you will need to complete a standard Property Information Form (TA6) which is published by the Law Society. You will also need to complete a Law Society Fittings and Contents Form (TA10). To help speed up your sale ask your solicitor for a copy of these forms as soon as you put your property on the market, this will assist you in identifying the relevant supporting documents you need.

For some tips on how to speed up your purchase click here.

An EPC provides information about a property’s energy use and typical energy costs together with recommendations about how to reduce energy use and save money.  An EPC gives a property an energy efficiency rating from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient) and is valid for 10 years.

An EPC is required whenever a property is built, sold or rented out, unless the property is exempt. You can be fined if you don’t get an EPC if one is needed. In order to put an EPC in place you will need to contact an accredited assessor who will assess your property and then produce the certificate. Your estate agent should be able to assist you with this or recommend an assessor to you.

An EPC will not be required in certain circumstances, for example EPCs are not required for listed buildings or residential buildings that are intended to be used less than four months a year. For a full non-exhaustive list of exceptions please see this link.

If you are looking to buy or rent a property and would like to view its EPC, you can do so free of charge here.

English Heritage is the only official and up to date database of nationally designated historic places including: listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and properties with current preservation notices (BPN). Useful if you would like to find out if your property is listed, if you are buying a listed property or if you are a developer thinking of investing in historic buildings.

Radon is a naturally occurring inert radioactive gas found in the ground. Some parts of England and Wales are more adversely affected by it than others. Remedial action is advised for properties with a test result above the “recommended action level”. More information can be found here.

Your solicitor will be able to inspect your property title to check that everything is in place before contract papers are sent out.  Any concerns that you may have relating to the property title can be investigated by your solicitor. Your solicitor will often be able to pre-empt questions that are likely to be raised by a prospective purchaser’s solicitor and should then be able to ensure that the information that will be required is to hand, thus reducing the risk of lengthy delays later  in the transaction.

You will be required to complete some protocol forms which will form part of the draft contract package.  These are standard forms which ask for details relating to the property, such as what building works have been carried out and who traditionally has maintained the boundaries.  Whilst these are standard forms, they can often take a while to complete if the information required is not to hand.  Your solicitor will be able to let you have copies of these forms so that you can start working through them now.

The Land Registry is a Government department created in 1862 to register the ownership of land and property in England and Wales. There are currently more than 23 million titles documented. Useful if you would like to check property ownership, prove that you own a property or check whether your property is registered.

To find out more about whether your property is registered or whether you should be considering first registration of your property title read our article here.

As a matter of course, your solicitor will usually carry out a Local Authority search.  Apart from local road proposals affecting land within 200 metres of the property, the Local Authority search will only give information about the property itself, concerning the effect of Town & Country planning legislation, liability for road charges, compulsory purchase or demolition orders, financial orders and other matters which could significantly affect it.

The search will not give information about other property or the development of neighbouring land. If, therefore, you are concerned about the possibility of a development or any matters relating to other property or land in the neighbourhood, you should make enquiries of the local authority before you consent to the exchange of contracts.

As part of these enquiries, you can instruct your solicitor to carry out a Plan Search.  A Plan Search shows planning permissions and applications affecting the immediate vicinity of the property (usually up to 750 metres), which can include large developments or smaller applications such as single storey extensions or dormer windows.  It must be noted however that the search only reveals the position as at the date of the search and does not give information as to future planned applications.