Insurance to cover a defect in title or missing/lack of building/planning documents.

A search at the land registry to see if a property is registered or unregistered.

A form of ownership of a property where on the death of one of the co-owners, the surviving co-owner(s) is (are) entitled to the whole ownership of the property.

A search at the Land Charges Registry to see if a person has any bankruptcy proceedings pending or if the property is unregistered to find out if there are any mortgages or interests registered against the property.

A central body that retains records of who owns the land, and under what conditions.

The fee payable to the Land Registry to register any change affecting the property including a change of ownership.

A search at the Land Registry to check that no undisclosed charges or interests are registered against the property.

See lessor.

Where a property is leasehold this is the document giving the lessee the rights to possession of the property for the lease term and setting out all rights and obligations.

Where the ownership of property is for a limited period only. For example 99 years or sometimes 999 years. Possession of the property will be subject to the payment of an annual ground rent.

See Lessee.

See Mortgage.

See Mortgagee.

Where a property is leasehold the lessee means the current owner of the leasehold property as opposed to the freeholder or landlord whose interest is subject to the lessees right of occupation until the lease term has come to an end.

This means the landlord or freeholder who owns the freehold title and is entitled to the ground rent under the lease and possession of the property at the end of the lease term.

This is the title guarantee given by a seller where, because of their limited knowledge of the property, the full title guarantee cannot be given (e.g. a personal representative of a deceased owner or a mortgagee in possession).

This represents a list of questions about the property which are sent to the local authority. It covers item such as, whether the road serving the property should be maintained by the council, whether there have been any planning applications on the property, and a number of other things.

A search to check whether the property may be affected by coal mining activity.