The first thing a vendor must do is to ensure what is the legal situation of his property. It is more frequent that you could imagine that a vendor is not aware that his property is not properly registered under his name or there are outstanding holds (embargos, mortgages) that were not properly cancelled at the purchase.
Among all the particular situations to take into consideration we could list the following:
It is necessary to check that the house is indeed registered under the vendor’s name. If that is not the case it is imperative to localize the original purchase deed ensure it is indeed properly registered. Alternatively, you might have inherited the property but it is still registered in the deceased person’s name, in this case you need to do the previous inheritance procedure in order to place the house under your name.
It is necessary to check the situation of the holds and embargos of the house:
- If those are known or belong to you, then we have to organize its cancellation on completion, for instance the cancelation of the mortgage contracted to buy the house or an embargo form the council or the community of owners if you have not paid the local rates or the community fees.
- If those are unknown and do not belong to you (for instance, the previous mortgage forms your previous vendor that was not properly cancelled when you purchased the house) then it is imperative to know why it was not done on its time and localize the proper documentation to arrange the cancelation of such holds at the land registry.