Conveyancing

Buying & Selling your home

Moving Home

Our Residential Conveyancing Team has a wide experience in all legal and practical aspects of your house move, making use of the latest technology available to provide an efficient service that is responsive to your individual needs.

Our Team is conscious of the need to keep in touch with you at every stage of the transaction and aims to work closely with all parties in the transaction to enable a smooth and problem free process.

Whether buying, selling or both, we will guide you through each and every stage of the process providing you with reports and updates throughout.

We will ensure that there are no defects to the property Title and you are getting exactly what you are paying for. We will suggest and arrange for all necessary searches to be carried out and we can put you in contact with respected local Surveyors and Mortgage Advisors to provide their valuable expertise. We will raise and deal with any enquiries concerning the property and guide you through Exchange of Contracts and Completion.

Moving home is a major change in circumstances and is an appropriate time to consider making or updating your Will and consider any Tax Planning requirements. Dodds Solicitors LLP can provide assistance with this. Please contact us and ask to be put in contact with a member of our Private Client Team.

The Team also deals with new build properties, part-buy-part-rent or shared ownership properties, re-mortgages, equity release mortgages, purchasing plots of land and transfers of equity.

Joint Tenancy & Declaration of Trusts

Joint Tenants

If you are buying property with someone else, whether they are your partner, friend or if it is an investment, you will need to consider the implications of joint ownership.

Your property can be held as either Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common. If the property is held as Joint Tenants, you do not own a specific share in the property and if one of you dies the property automatically passes to the surviving owner or owners, regardless of what is set out in your Will. On a sale it is assumed that the property is held equally and that the proceeds of sale will be shared equally.

However, if the property is held as Tenants in Common, each owner has a specific share and interest in the property and can deal with that share as their own. That share can be sold or transferred and gifted to someone by your Will. On the death of one of you, your share in the property will pass under your Will, or, if you have not made a Will, under the Intestacy Rules to your next of kin.

Declaration of Trust

If there are more than two owners, unequal shares or different contributions to the purchase of the property, we can prepare a Declaration of Trust setting out these arrangements to avoid any disagreements in the future.

Declarations of Trust can be as simple or complicated as required and are comparatively inexpensive, especially compared to the cost involved in resolving matters in the future and any losses you may incur.

It is possible for one joint owner to convert the ownership from a joint tenancy to a tenancy in common, but the consent of both owners is necessary to convert a tenancy in common to a joint tenancy.

When dealing with the implications of joint ownership and Declarations of Trust, it is an ideal time to consider making or updating your Will and consider any Tax Planning requirements. Dodds Solicitors LLP can provide assistance with this. Please contact us and ask to be put in contact with a member of our Private Client Team.

Remortgage & Transfer of Equity

Remortgage

There are several reasons why people remortgage their property. Common reasons are to raise capital for home improvements or to obtain a better mortgage deal. Our Residential Conveyancing Team can help you quickly through this process. We can put you in contact with respected local Mortgage Advisors to provide their valuable expertise.

We will guide you through the process of dealing with the Mortgage paperwork, any Title issues and deal with any searches or search insurance which may be required. We will also deal with the redemption of your current Mortgage and the registration of your new Mortgage at the Land Registry.

Transfer of Equity

A transfer of equity is quite common when, usually, you wish to add a new partner to the Title and Mortgage or when co-habitees or partners decide that they no longer want to live together, but one co-owner wishes to continuing living in the property. Subject to the consent of any Lender who has a secured charge on the property, Dodds Solicitors LLP can deal with the transfer of equity quickly and efficiently.

It will usually be transferred subject to the mortgage, but the co-owner leaving the property will be released from the mortgage. It is not uncommon for the remaining co-owner to raise an additional advance from the Lender, to be able to pay out a share to the co-owner leaving the property. Alternatively, the remaining co-owner may wish to take out a completely new mortgage. We can put you in contact with respected local Mortgage Advisors to provide their valuable expertise.

Either way, our Residential Conveyancing Team can help you through the process and ensure the transfer is as smooth as possible. We will prepare all of the necessary Transfer paperwork, deal with any searches or search insurance which may be required. We will also deal with the registration of the Transfer at the Land Registry.

Remortgaging or carrying out a Transfer of Equity can be a significant change in your circumstances and will be an ideal time to consider making or updating your Will and Tax Planning. Dodds Solicitors LLP can provide assistance with this, please ask to be put in contact with a member of our Private Client Team.