Latest blog posts

Selling your house typically involves placing it on the open market with an Estate Agent where there are thousands of potential buyers. But what if you are not offering your property up to all these buyers? What if you are selling privately to another individual, perhaps even someone you who or a family member. Estate Agent or Surveyor Both ... Read more >>

One common type of enquiry we receive at Peter Barry, involves a leaseholder who's freeholder also resides in a property in the same building.  The leaseholder wants to extend their lease. As the two parties are neighbours, is it possible to grant this but it will still depend on particular circumstances. Leaseholder owns Share of Freehold If ... Read more >>

When two people own a property together the property will be held, in terms of legal title, either as ‘joint tenants’ or as ‘tenants in common’. The primary difference is that when a property is owned as ‘tenants in common’ each party owns a distinct, identifiable share in the property. This may happen, for example, if one of the ... Read more >>

There are many reasons why neighbours do not respond to party wall notices - they may have moved out of the property and not updated the Title Register, they may be on a long holiday or they may just be the type of person that doesn’t do paperwork (more than you might think). Whatever the reason, I would estimate that between 10 and 20% of party ... Read more >>

Mild rises likely coming from greater Brexit certaintyRightmove have predicted a modest 2% rise over the course of 2020 for the UK, with larger gains expected in the North.This is mainly due to the Government's large majority and Brexit now confirmed for 31st January which should give both buyers and sellers more confidence to move in the ... Read more >>

Soon after thoughts about carrying out some building work to a property have been formed, thoughts will often turn to planning permission requirements and how best to deal with them. Planning permission in one form or another will usually appear as a major milestone on most construction projects. With this in mind, it is useful to consider how the ... Read more >>

The Party Wall Act leaves it up to the surveyors to agree which of the owners should pay their fees (which must be reasonable) - in all normal circumstances that will be the owner benefitting from the works but what happens if those works do not proceed?With the uncertainty that has plagued the economy over the last couple of years it has ... Read more >>