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Our solicitors are experts in the purchase of:
We ensure your interests are protected when you enter into a legal agreement with a seller. Our advice will be aligned with your project goals, helping you maximise your investment return.
Contact our expert team today and receive your free initial assessment
Land conveyancing is similar to residential conveyancing, except there are extra considerations in the legal process of buying land. Access, boundaries, contamination (in the case of brownfield sites), drainage and planning permission are the types of issues addressed as part of land conveyancing.
At Davisons, we manage each issue as efficiently and as quickly as possible to keep your purchase on track.
We organise land searches and check that these are satisfactory, raising enquiries as needed. Searches include local authority searches, Land Registry searches, environmental searches, water authority searches and more.
Searches cover planning, building regulations, drainage and sewage, easements (whether other people have the right to cross the land), footpaths, road schemes, water supply, public rights of way, and orders of the local authority. Additional searches may be needed specific to the location of the land, for example, coal mining searches.
We will raise an enquiry to find out if any wayleave agreements are in place between the landowner and utilities, telecoms or internet providers. If there are, the companies usually pay a yearly fee to the landowner to use their land.
A wayleave contractual agreement is between the landowner (or landlord and or telecommunications provider). This is where the landowner grants a network a licence to access the land or property to install and/or telecommunications/electronic comminications apparatus. This is commonly used by broadband companies.
This is also referred to as a ‘clawback’ clause in a contract. The seller may wish to include this clause to benefit from a share of the future profit generated from the land.
It is important that the terms of an overage clause are examined in detail as such a clause could entitle the seller to benefit from the land for up to 50 years.
We will check where boundaries lie and who is responsible for maintaining each boundary. Boundary disputes can be expensive, so we will take every possible step to make sure ownership and responsibility is clear from the outset.
We will liaise with your surveyor and negotiate with neighbours and other third parties as needed.
You can enter into an ‘option agreement’ with a seller which means you are not obliged to purchase the land unless you receive planning permission. If you cannot obtain planning permission to use the land as you intend within a specific timescale, then you can cancel the contract.
Our solicitors can advise you about option agreements and make sure such an agreement protects your interests.
We check contracts for restrictive covenants to ensure there is nothing to prevent you from developing the land as you wish.
If you require a mortgage, we will check that your purchase complies with the special conditions specified in the mortgage agreement.
Conditions might include not allowing anybody else to occupy the land without seeking the mortgage lender’s permission first or not being allowed to carry out certain alterations to the land.
The contract is a legal documents which includes details of both the seller, buyer, purchase price and the property. This document will need signing and posting back to us in readiness for exchange of contracts. Please note by signing this document you will not be legally bound, it is only when exchange of contracts takes place that the document will be legally binding.
Exchange of contracts involves us giving you a phone call, running through the details of the contract with you and making sure you are happy with everything. We will then call the other sides solicitors to exchange contracts, which involves confirming the details of the contract, dating the contract and inserting the completion date in the contract. Exchange of contracts sets the completion date and the contract will be legally binding, if either party decides to withdraw, there will be financial repercussions.
We will carry out ‘pre-completion searches’. These searches are for your mortgage lender to know that nothing has changed regarding your financial or corporate position since contracts were exchanged. Pre-completion searches are usually a condition of a mortgage agreement.
At this stage, your land conveyancer will request the release of the money from your mortgage lender, ready to transfer to the seller on completion day.
On completion day, money is transferred to the seller’s solicitors, and the keys to the land are released to you.
We will pay stamp duty land tax (SDLT) and register your ownership and the lender’s mortgage with HM Land Registry.
Once registration is complete, you will receive a copy of the deeds to your land, and the originals will be sent to the mortgage lender. If you do not require a mortgage, your land conveyancer will send the original deeds to you, or you can request that your bank retains them.
Our team of specialist lawyers are experts in their field. Be confident in their advice and decisions to help get the right outcome for you. Contact us today to see how we can help