What to do when buying/selling your home

What to do when buying/selling your home

If you are in the process of buying or selling your home, you or your solictor will contact us as we will need to issue a certificate of compliance before the sale can be completed.

This is due to a restriction in the title of the property as given by the Land Registry because Bournville Village Trust is the long-term stewardship provider in Lawley.

As part of the buying/selling process, you will sign a TP1 document, this details what can and can’t be done to the property.

For example, the following clause is included in the TP1 and the Official Register of Title.

(date) RESTRICTION: No disposition of the registered estate other than a charge by the proprietor of the registered estate is to be registered without a certificate signed by the trustees of the charity of Bournville Village Trust of 350 Bournville Lane, Bournville, Birmingham B30 1QY or their conveyancer that the provisions of Clause 7.2 and 2.15 of the Transfer dated (dd/mm/yy) have been complied with.

NB : this restriction may vary slightly depending on the date your property was registered with the Land Registry.

The equity of your property cannot be transferred either by sale or by amendments without a certificate of compliance from Bournville Village Trust.

When selling a property, once you have accepted an offer from a prospective purchaser and instructed a solicitor, the buyer’s solicitor will request a Management Pack from us. This is requested via lawleystewardship@bvt.org.uk.

Our fee to provide the management pack is £294, which covers all the costs and fees involved in the legal process of transferring ownership of your property to someone else.

The Management Pack is made up of the following:

  • Letter of requirements to comply with the restriction in the Title
  • Completing a Freehold Management Questionnaire
  • Preparing a draft Deed of Covenant
  • Public Liability Insurance certificate
  • Deed of Foundation
  • Lawley Community Charge financial reports for the previous three years.
  • The cost also covers the following :
  • Answering all questions and queries asked by solicitors
  • Providing information relating to any outstanding amounts owed
  • Providing information relating to any breach of covenant
  • Providing information relating to any consents issued
  • Checking the required Deed of Covenant
  • Issuing the required Certificate of Compliance which has to be signed by our Conveyancer where there is a cost implication to ourselves.
  • A Notice Fee (this is a standard fee charged by all solicitors)
  • VAT element of £49.00.

We do not state which party covers any part or all of the fee, it is down to negotiation between the buyer and seller (or their solicitors) to determine how the fee is covered.

When a property is transferred, there is a legal requirement to make sure the buyer enters into a Deed of Covenant, signing them up to the same covenants you did when you purchased the property.

As being bound by all the covenants is critical to Long Term Stewardship and out of fairness to all residents, there is a restriction on the property title. This means the Land Registry will not register the transfer (effectively block the sale) unless they receive a Certificate of Compliance. This will be signed by our conveyancer on behalf of BVT to tell them we have checked the Deed and are happy for the transfer to proceed.

We will be in correspondence with both the seller’s and the buyer’s solicitors, often filling out and returning questionnaires and answering multiple queries. We will check the Community Charge is paid up to date and ensure there are no Breaches of Covenant against the property. We will usually supply copies of accounts and information on the Wear and Tear Fund.

At the end of the process, there is a legal requirement to provide us with a Notice of Transfer. We will check and acknowledge this and use it to update our systems, noting any charges (such as a mortgage) against the property.

The requirements for this process and covering the fees are detailed in the TP1 document.

The equity of your property cannot be transferred either by sale or by amendments without a Certificate of Compliance from Bournville Village Trust.

The process and the cost.

The £294 is a flat rate fee covering the costs and fees involved in the legal process of transferring ownership. The fee covers both the administration costs, issuing the Certificate of Compliance, the notice fee as well as VAT (our actual fee is £245 +VAT).

Although the removal or addition of a name from the property would seem a straightforward process, you have to engage a solicitor as there are a number of legal processes that must take place. One of those processes is informing the Land Registry we consent to the transfer.

To do this, we need to deal with any solicitor’s enquiries, undertake several checks on our records and then create the Certificate of Compliance (a legal document), which we then have to get signed by our conveyancer and then send to the solicitors.

At the end of the process, there is a legal requirement to provide us with a Notice of Transfer. We then check and acknowledge this and use it to update our systems to the new information, noting any charges (such as a mortgage) against the property.