:: UK JARGON INFOGUIDE

Joint Application
If you and your partner are applying for a mortgage together it is called a Joint Application. Most lenders will lend you either 2 and a half times your combined salary or 2 times for the 1st Applicant and 1 time for the 2nd Applicant.

Joint income
The total gross income of the mortgage applicants.

Joint mortgage
A mortgage shared jointly between two people with the agreement that if one dies, the other automatically inherits their share.

Leasehold
This means you own a property rather than rent the property for a set number of years. When the lease expires, the property returns to the freeholder. Shops and business premises are commonly sold on a leasehold.

Local Authority Search
When you buy a property the conveyancing process is carried out by your conveyancer, usually a solicitor. This search is based on your local council's services may affect the property. Such as proposed road improvements, and details of any planning permission given for the property or nearby property.

Loan to Value LTV
This term is used to describe the Loan to Value. The size of the mortgage you require compared to the value of the property. A £80,000 mortgage on a house valued at £92,000 would mean a LTV of 85%. You would then require a 15% deposit.

Land Registry Fee
This is the fee paid to the Land Registry to record a change in the records following a transaction involving land registered with them. The change is usually notified to them by the borrower's solicitor.

Land registry
This is a government department which registers and all the details of any land transactions and issues to do with ownership of property in England and Wales.

Lease
The lease is a document which contains the rights and the covenants (rules) on behalf of both the landlord and the tenant which regulate the use of the property.

Legal fees
The charges paid to a solicitor. Lender The building society, bank, mortgage company or mortgage broker with whom you take out your mortgage or other loan.

Letting agent
A property agent who can help landlords locate suitable properties for purchase, and who finds tenants to occupy those properties and manages the rental process which follows.

Letting insurance
An insurance the landlord might take out to protect his or her possessions in the rented home.

Licensed conveyancer
Alternative to solicitors. Specialising in the legal side of buying and selling property.