general information
(d) glossary of conveyancing, probate, and notarial terms
CONVEYANCING TERMS
ASSIGNMENT - a deed transferring a person's interest in something other than a freehold to another person. Typically there is an 'assignment' of an interest in a lease, or of a part share in any interest in land.
COMPLETION - the point at which you finish doing what the contract requires you to do. In most cases this is the point when the balance of purchase monies is paid and ownership is transferred, with keys being handed over to the new owner.
CONTRACT - in the conveyancing process this is a legal document setting out terms of a transaction, including the price and address of the property. It is prepared by the seller's conveyancers in two identical parts, one to be signed by the buyer and one by the seller. When the two parts are formally exchanged, the contract becomes binding on both parties.
CONVEYANCE - a deed transferring an interest in land (other than in relation to a leasehold interest) from one person to another. It is no longer in regular use, as the Land Registry transfer deeds have taken over their function, even for land which has not previously been registered.
CONVEYANCING - the legal work involved in transferring the ownership of land from one individual or organisation to another, or in the granting of rights over land.
DEPOSIT - the money paid by the buyer when contracts are exchanged. It is a part payment of the purchase price and if the buyer does not complete the purchase, the seller normally keeps the deposit. The amount is usually 10% of the purchase price.
EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS - the point at which the agreement to buy and sell a property becomes binding and a (non-refundable) deposit is paid to the seller. Commonly referred to just as 'Exchange'.
FIXTURE - in relation to land this means anything fixed to the land (or to any building on the land) which makes it essentially part of that land or building, with the consequence that it will be taken as included in any sale unless the contrary is expressly stated.
FREEHOLD - a very common form of ownership of property which is unlimited in time and does not involve ongoing payment of money to another person as a condition of the ownership.
INTEREST - two important meanings here: one is the price you pay to a lender for borrowing his/its money (enough said); and another, relating to land, is a person's type of ownership of anything connected with that land, such as the freehold, a lease, a right of way, a secured loan.
LEASEHOLD - also a very common form of ownership of property, but involving a set time period of the ownership and regular payment of money (rent, or ground rent) to another person (the Landlord / the Lessor).
LEGAL CHARGE - the modern approach to granting a mortgage, this is the form of deed that is now always used to provide security to a lender for its loan to you. Unlike what used to happen with a mortgage, you do not sign the ownership of your land over to the lender, but you do give power to the lender to apply for an order for the sale of your land.
MORTGAGE - (see also LEGAL CHARGE) a binding written agreement that another person can have control of your land should you fail to stick to your side of a contract with that person. Almost always a mortgage would be entered into between a borrower and a lender as security for money lent for a property purchase, or sometimes between a debtor and a creditor to secure the debt. Nowadays a legal charge is used instead.
OFFICE COPY - in conveyancing terms this means an official copy, issued by the Land Registry, of what is contained in the title registers of a particular title or of the Land Registry's plan showing the location of the land in question. The phrase 'Office Copy Entries' (often abbreviated to OCE) means a set of the register entries plus a copy of the plan.
REDEMPTION - the paying off of a loan and, usually, the ending of the mortgage or the legal charge securing that loan as well.
REGISTRATION - in conveyancing terms, the process of getting a record made at the Land Registry of (almost) any change in the ownership of land. When a change of ownership has to be registered, the new ownership is not fully effective in law until the registration process has been completed.
SEARCHES - many different bodies hold information about properties and people, and 'Searches' are enquiries made of any of these bodies for information about a particular property or a particular person or company.
STAMP DUTY LAND TAX - this is the tax that replaced Stamp Duty some years ago, and for most people it is the tax payable when a property above a certain value is purchased, or when a new lease is granted with rent above a certain level. There is a duty following all major transfers of land ownership for the details to be given to HM Revenue and Customs, and it is the new owner who has to sign the form (or at least authorise someone to do it on his/her behalf) with penalties for late submission of the form.
TITLE DEEDS - now becoming a rarity due to registration of title, title deeds are a bundle of documents showing that a person owns land (or an interest in land, such as hunting or fishing rights) and generally including the deeds which transferred the land to the current owner and all predecessors over a minimum period of 30 years together with all mortgages and legal charges and relevant searches.
TITLE NUMBER - the unique number (actually it is two or three letters followed by up to 6 numbers) that is given by the Land Registry to each separate piece of land that is registered with it.
TRANSFER DEED (TR1 or TP1) - the document transferring legal ownership of a property, which is signed by buyer and seller and sent to the Land Registry for them to amend their records.
PROBATE TERMS
ADMINISTRATION - the process of identifying a deceased's assets, collecting them in if necessary, paying off all monies due to be paid (including tax), and distributing the remaining items or monies to the appropriate beneficiaries; occasionally also setting up a trust.
CODICIL - an additional document that adds to or modifies a will without completely replacing it, and which is best used for relatively minor changes.
EXECUTOR - a person appointed by a will to adminster the estate of the person making the will.
LETTERS OF ADMINISTRATION - the granting by the Probate Registry of authority to administer a deceased person's estate to anyone who is not an executor.
PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE - an umbrella term for any person engaged in formally administering a deceased person's estate, including a person to whom a grant of probate or a grant of letters of administration has been made.
PROBATE - the submission of a will by an executor identified in the will to the Probate Registry in order to obtain formal confirmation of his/her authority to administer the deceased's estate. [Note that an executor technically has authority by virtue of the will from the date of death, but very often needs the grant of probate in order to be able to give evidence of this.]
TRUST - a trust arises when property is held by anyone for the benefit of others, even if that includes themselves; special and strict rules apply to how trust property can and should be dealt with.
NOTARIAL TERMS
APOSTILLE - a certificate attached to documents signed by public officials by the Government of the country in which the official is appointed in order to confirm the status of the official. For the United Kingdom the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has a Legalisation Office which will attach apostilles to documents signed by officials within the various jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, including, of course, Notaries.
ATTORNEY - No, not an American lawyer in this context, but a person you have authorised to do something on your behalf, so that the legal consequences of them doing it are the same as if you had done it yourself.
ATTESTATION - confirmation by the Notary that something has been duly and properly done by a person or persons.
AUTHENTICATION - the process whereby a Notary makes sure that what is produced by a Client is genuinely what it seems to be. For most documents this involves contacting the person or body that originally produced the document and obtaining confirmation that it is genuine (or perhaps that it is a copy of a genuine original). The process can be time-consuming and expensive.
CERTIFICATION - confirmation by the Notary that a particular thing is true or accurate.
LEGALISATION - has several possible meanings, but is essentially the confirmation by the representative of a foreign country that something done in the country where he is the representative may be relied on in his home country. Many countries will now rely on the apostille alone, without requiring their own ambassadors or consuls to add anything to a document, but full legalisation is nevertheless still commonly required.
POWER OF ATTORNEY - the deed that appoints an attorney (not the person appointed, as is commonly found). These can be in very general form or may be specific to a given task, and it is safer to be quite specific when appointing an attorney for international transactions, so that the powers granted are fully sufficient but no more than that.
SEAL - I have a seal, but alas do not possess a walrus.
The Notary's seal is embossed on documents to show that they are the ones that the notary is attesting or certifying. Apart from being unique identification of the particular Notary (mine bears an old Anton family crest), it also makes later substitutions and additions to a document much harder to carry out, and so improves the security of the original document. Sometimes a circular red disc of paper is fixed to the document where the seal is to be put, but this is not the seal itself. The use of sealing wax on documents is now a little old-fashioned.
VERIFICATION - (see also AUTHENTICATION) the process of making sure that what, and who, appears in front of a Notary is as said to be. For people this generally requires that identification documentation should be produced. It is perhaps a bit less rigorous than authentication, though sometimes there is little to choose between the two terms.