Boxing Day 2025 is expected to see a flurry of activity in the housing market. If you’re planning to get in on the action, Stephen Ward has put together a dictionary of definitions for home buying and selling to help you cut through the jargon.
Are you participating in the Boxing Day bounce?
After months of budget uncertainty brought the housing market to a virtual standstill, real estate experts are now predicting potential buyers will be back in action.
Rightmove often sees an increase in activity on its website on Boxing Day and expects it to be busier than normal this year.
If you want to resume your search, the best place to start is by making sure you understand the terminology. So, as an early Christmas gift, we’ve put together this jargon buster to help you get to grips with the transfer of legal ownership of real estate or land from one party to another – otherwise known as the conveyancing process.
It is a careful and complex process, but its purpose is to protect you, the buyer. Your carrier will ensure that your interests are represented at every stage.
Limits: The physical boundaries of your property, often defined by hedges, fences and walls. The exact boundary between properties is not defined anywhere, and the costs of maintaining fences, for example, usually have to be shared by both parties. But if it is supported on one side by upright posts, there is a presumption that it belongs to the property of that side.
Building insurance: Once contracts have been exchanged, meaning both parties have entered into a legal commitment, the buyer must obtain insurance coverage for the property. There is a good chance that your mortgage provider would also like to see proof of this.
Warning emptor: Latin for ‘let the buyer beware’ means that while the seller may not lie about the property, it is up to you as the buyer to conduct your own due diligence – for example through a survey, searches or physical inspection – so you know exactly what you are buying.
CHAPS: This stands for Clearing Houses Automated Payment System and is the process by which the outstanding funds to purchase a property are transferred electronically between the buyer’s bank account and the seller’s bank account on the day of completion.
Possessions: Movable personal property – such as furniture or curtains – that are not part of the sales price, unless otherwise agreed.
Covenant: A legally binding obligation recorded in the title deeds that determines what you can or cannot do on the property or land. These can be positive – such as a promise to contribute to the maintenance of a shared driveway – or restrictive – preventing you from using the driveway for business purposes, for example.
Protected area: An area of special architectural or historic interest where the local authority imposes additional planning controls to ensure that its appearance and character are maintained. This may mean that certain restrictions apply if, for example, you want to expand the property, replace doors and windows or cut down trees.
Deed of transfer: Sometimes also called transfer or transfer. This is the name given to the document that formally transfers ownership of the property.
Error in title: A problem with the legal ownership of the property, such as missing documents, boundary disputes or unclear rights of way, which can create legal risks for the buyer (you can often resolve these problems through legal documents or by taking out special insurance).
Payout: Costs incurred by your transporter, such as land registry and search costs, which are passed on to you as the buyer.
easement: The legal right to use another person’s land for a specific, limited purpose, such as as a right of way.
Equity: The difference between the value of a property and the amount owed on the mortgage (negative equity is when the amount owed exceeds the value of the property).
Fixtures and accessories: Items that have been repaired or fitted – such as lamps and bathroom furniture – are considered included in the sale.
Property: Full ownership of the property and the land on which it is built, with no time limit.
Leasehold: This means that the land is owned by an owner who gives buyers the right to occupy it for a certain period of time – usually 99 years – in return for a regular fee known as ground rent. The details of what ground rent is to be paid, when and to whom will be included in the lease, although careful attention should be given to this as the amounts can increase significantly over time.
Management company: For leasehold properties such as apartments, this is the company set up to handle a landlord’s obligations under the lease. Normally the company will charge a regular service charge to cover the costs of maintaining the building and any communal areas.
Real estate information form: Also known as the TA6 form, a questionnaire completed by the seller to provide potential buyers with detailed information about the property and any issues they should be aware of.
Registered vs Unregistered Country: Most land in England and Wales is registered electronically with HM Land Registry, but there are still some that do not because ownership has not changed for a long time. Unregistered land has paper title deeds and is usually more complicated to purchase as the property must be registered for the first time.
Searches: Carried out by your conveyancer together with organizations that have information about the property you want to purchase, such as the municipality, water board and mining authorities. ‘Priority searches’ can also be run shortly before completion to ensure nothing has changed.
Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT): Payable if you buy a property or land worth more than a certain amount in England and Northern Ireland. The current threshold at which this becomes affordable is £125,000 or £300,000 if it is your first home. There are different taxes for Scotland (Land and Buildings Transaction Tax) and Wales (Land Transaction Tax).
Subject to contract: Negotiations are ongoing, but the sale has not yet been legally agreed.
Title deeds: The formal documents that show who owns the property and the land on which it stands.
Empty property: This means that the home must be empty of people and their belongings on the day of delivery, so that you as a buyer can make immediate and exclusive use of your new home.
Buying a house is a complex process and you are not expected to know all the terminology, but if you don’t understand something you can ask your conveyancer, whose job it is to explain and guide you through the process.
Here you will find a list of CLC regulated transporters here.
Stephen Ward is director of strategy and external relations at the Council for recognized transporters