Severance of Joint Tenancy Lawyers

Jeysu Akoya

Commercial Support
Heald Green 0161 283 6573
Get in Touch
Dan Chadwick
Dan Chadwick
1748941505
We recently sold and bought a new property, Anna B was our solicitor (both sale and purchase). Our chain was very long and there were several factors causing issues and delays. Anna and the team at the Cheadle branch, worked very hard to ensure the success of the chain. My husband and I are extremely grateful for all their hard work and support throughout the process - which at times was stressful! We would highly recommend.
Laura Anderson
Laura Anderson
1748536946
I can not speak highly enough of Anna Beavers at Mounteney, she helped us with our recent house sale and purchase, when I say helped, she guided us through it expertly, explaining things as went along, Anna was very professional but also down to earth and kept us up to date with progress. One thing that stood out for us was how responsive Anna was, ALWAYS getting in touch when she said she would, emailing back very promptly to enquiries, chased other conveyancers when needed, this was a huge positive for us and made the whole experience so much better than we thought. Thank you so much Anna!
radu muntean
radu muntean
1747855457
I have dealt with a number of solicitors during the last few years and I think that Mr. Ian McKenna is by far the best solicitor I've ever worked with.He is very efficient, he has an outstanding expertise, and he has a very high level of professionalism. All these qualities make him a great person to deal with.I really appreciate how he handled my property purchase from start to finish and I will definitely use his services again.
Hetal Knowlson
Hetal Knowlson
1747835491
Anna Beavers was our solicitor and she was excellent. Very responsive via email/call, gave good advice, navigated the challenges of sale/purchase well and managed to complete a purchase in 6 weeks! She went the extra mile to make sure we could complete so quickly. We were so glad we went with her, service was top class. Thank you Anna!
Eleanor Bowkis
Eleanor Bowkis
1747249570
Anna Beavers was our solicitor for sale and purchase. We cannot praise her enough. She was amazing throughout, extremely quick at responding to emails and kept us updated as much as possible.She ensured all funds were ready for our completion date and made everything effortless. We were completed and in our new home by 1pm! Incredible service from Mounteney and we will use them again in the future for sure.
Lucy Wiggins
Lucy Wiggins
1746529958
Very good communication- friendly, approachable staff- made the whole experience less stressful!
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Description

Severance has to do with the English and Welsh legal system for joint ownership of property – for more details see:

Declaration of Trust

Joint Ownership Form

Second Trustee

Most lay-people (and many professionals!) find the scheme bewildering and difficult to understand – so don’t feel bad if this explanation seems like gibberish to you:

Severing a joint tenancy normally converts a legal and beneficial joint tenancy (in which neither owner has any separate share of their own) into a beneficial tenancy in common in equal shares – in which each co-owner has an equal (but undivided) interest in the property, beneficially. The legal title is always held jointly by the joint legal owners – but (subject to the Trust for Land – and once properly registered) the severance puts the trust-restriction onto the title. The shares are “protected” from the legal owner “survivorship rule” by the need for the legal owner to appoint a co-trustee to give good receipt/overreach the restriction.

Severance can be done by any co-owner – it does not require the co-operation of the other(s) – but does require service of notice on the others.

In many circumstances, severance makes good legal sense, e.g. in instances of relationship breakdown, some estate planning scenarios including on occasion when one of joint owners may require local Authority care provision, etc.

How long will it take?

We don’t generally do anything for new clients until our process of client retention has concluded – this involves agreeing the scope of what we are doing for the price (our terms are below), setting-up our client record (that includes ID checks), and producing the bill (payment in advance is required for all new clients).

After that, the production of the notice of severance is a job that we can undertake in less than an hour once we can schedule it in our workflow, that can depend on how busy we are at any particular time. We would not usually take-on a job for which we could not engage within about a working week.

A completed severance will then need to be submitted to HM Land Registry for registration. The time HM Land Registry take to process registrations varies greatly, depending on how busy they are, and the type of application. Severance applications are often processed very quickly, up to “next day”; however, some applications appear to languish awaiting HM Land Registry attention; in 2021 some applications were taking about 6 months to be registered – and some types of application can take even longer than that, unfortunately. However, once submitted HM Land Registry process applications on any title in order of submission – so their delay ought not to affect the priority of your application relative to other matters on that title.

Money Matters

Your supplier is SRA-regulated Mounteney Solicitors, that charges VAT some customers may be able to reclaim

We charge £275 + VAT = £300

There is more about our fees on our website here

If you have any questions, require any further information, or would like to engage us on the T&Cs linked Our Terms in the footer below, please don’t hesitate to Contact Us.