Buying a House Without Clear Title

Lawrence is a Partner based in the Guildford office, and he is also Head of the Residential Property team at Hart Brown LLP.

Lawrence qualified as a solicitor in 2001 and has extensive experience in a broad range of residential property work, including very high value transactional work and acquisitions for international investor clients. He also has considerable experience in dealing with property work originating from, or ancillary to, private client matters and family/matrimonial matters.

He is committed to providing a proactive, friendly and positive approach and he strives to communicate clearly and effectively with all those involved in the transactions he deals with in order to achieve the best outcome for his clients. He endeavours to find pragmatic and commercially viable solutions to problems wherever possible.

Tim is Chair of the firm, Compliance Officer for Legal Practice and Quality Partner, dealing with residential property work.

Tim has a vast amount of experience in residential property, having been qualified for over 40 years. He is learning many aspects of his additional roles, yet he is still invested and highly competent in residential property.

Tim qualified with a BA in Business Law, Articled with Hart Brown in 1978 and became a solicitor in 1980. His specialism in residential property work, particularly in the Surrey area, has provided Tim with a highly experienced and efficient skill set to achieve successful results for many long-standing and new clients.

Debbie, who is a Partner, specialises in residential property. After joining Hart Brown in 1984 she quickly progressed through the ranks qualifying as a Legal Executive in 1996. She was admitted to the Fellowship in 1997. Debbie is well known in the Godalming area and receives high praise both from clients and agents who come back to her time and time again.

Her most memorable case was the purchase of a property for clients who were looking for a quick turnaround. It was a mere 3 working days from instructions to exchange of contracts.

Debbie often receives excellent feedback from her clients, here are just a few of their statements:

"This is the second time we've used Debbie at Hart Brown, and yet again she has given us fantastic service. Shall certainly be using you again."

"It's a quick, efficient and friendly service - just right for the somewhat fraught process of buying and selling property."

"We had our smoothest sale ever thanks to Debbie Beswick."

"Second time we've used you, second time we've been impressed."

Emma is a Partner in the residential property department at our Cranleigh office. She has over 20 years' experience in helping clients move house as smoothly as possible.

Emma qualified as a solicitor in 1998 after studying for an LLB (Hons) Law Degree.

Her specialism within residential property involves dealing with a wide range of sales and purchase of houses and flats, ranging from first time buyers to high net worth properties.

Emma is a proactive member of the team, moving transactions forward as quickly as possible. She strives to find solutions to a range of problems that arise, ensuring her clients achieve their desired goals.

An example of feedback received from clients:

"Thank you for all your help with this. It's a pleasure to work with you. You are responsive, action oriented and straight forward - all behaviours which I value!"

Jeremy has extensive knowledge in Residential Property having qualified in 1992.

He is committed to providing a proactive, friendly and positive approach, with nearly 30 years’ experience as a residential property specialist. Jeremy strives to communicate clearly and effectively with all those involved in transactions he deals with, in order to achieve the best outcome for his clients. He endeavours to find pragmatic solutions to problems wherever possible.

Jeremy believes in building up a strong relationship with his clients in order to understand their aims and needs, and work with them to achieve these so far as possible.

Memorable cases Jeremy has worked on include completing a purchase within a week from instruction where his client was given a great incentive on a new build property if he completed that quickly.

In 2014, Jeremy was involved the sale of a property where a Local Authority had acquired a strip of land along the frontage in the 1960s for potential road widening. They had granted a license over the land in exchange. The road widening never took place and the scheme had been abandoned, however, the buyers’ solicitors were not happy with the license arrangement that remained in place. Jeremy drafted a conditional contract clause which gave his client 9 months to resolve the issue with the Local Authority and to pay any premium agreed out of the exchange deposit. After lengthy negotiations with the Local Authority which involved taking Counsel’s Opinion in relation to the status of the license, an agreement was reached with the Local Authority just in time to enable him to give notice to the buyers’ solicitors to complete the sale.

Peter’s specialism is residential property.

He qualified as a Solicitor in 1991 and worked for a number of firms as a locum and then full time before joining Hart Brown in 2000. His experience as a locum he says gave him a good insight into the kind of firm that he wanted to settle down in. “It is amazing how different firms are in terms of the service they offer their clients” says Peter.

Peter receives excellent feedback from his clients:

"We would like to thank you very much for acting for us in this matter...we have been impressed with your timely and straightforward handling of the various stages of the process and your effective dealing with any issues arising. Once again thank you very much – it has been a pleasure doing business with you."

"I found all my dealings with Peter Howe very useful, he is very down to earth and explained and answered all my queries very clearly, which took away a lot of the stress. Thank you."

Irene joined us here at Hart Brown in 2021 as an Associate in our Woking Office and specialises in residential property.

Irene has an LLB (Hons) in Law and qualified as a Solicitor in 1992. She started her career in family and childcare work and following almost 10 years living abroad in Tokyo, Singapore and the USA she returned to work as a Solicitor in Surrey as a Locum Solicitor with long lasting appointments. Irene then worked for the past 7 years in a Surrey and Hampshire based firm and was promoted to Head of the Residential Property department.

Over the years Irene has dealt with all types of clients and properties, from first-time buyers starting out on the property ladder to people downsizing from larger properties and moving to assisted living accommodation and everything in-between.

Irene takes a lot of pride in clients returning to her for repeat business and she likes to build relationships with clients and local estate agents to ensure good and effective communication throughout each transaction. Irene’s careful but pragmatic approach makes the house moving process as stress-free as possible.

Corinne specialises in residential property. She has a wide range of experience which includes acting for individuals and corporate clients on sales, purchases, and re-mortgage transactions of freehold and leasehold properties, and transfers of equity.

Graduating with a BSc (Hons) degree in Management and Marketing, Corinne then qualified as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives in 2005.

Corinne believes that understanding a client’s needs, building a strong relationship with them, and good communication through the process, are key in meeting a client’s expectations and ultimate goal.

Corinne often receives excellent feedback from her clients:

"Very reassuringly professional and confident conveyancing on our property transaction."

"...I have appreciated your wise counsel and the efficient way you have dealt with this transaction and managed the process so that the deadlines were all met."

Lewis started his legal career in practices on the outskirts of London and Surrey, gaining a good grounding across a wide geographical area in both contentious and non-contentious property matters.

Over the last 3 years he has specialised in leasehold and freehold enfranchisement dealings, applying his previous contentious and transactional experience to a niche area of property law that is replete with pitfalls.

Lewis is happy to act for Landlords or Tenants and he has experience in dealing with large collectives of lessees seeking to enfranchise. He is also happy to act for businesses with residential property investments and individuals seeking to protect the value of their home. He can also give good advice in seeking the right valuation advice from the right surveyor when preparing for, or responding to, enfranchisement claims.

Lewis started his studies with a degree in Classics from the University of Manchester before studying for his GDL and LPC. In his spare time, Lewis’ interests include cricket, history and cosmology. He also loves the outdoors and is happy to go on a 10 mile hike through driving rain.

Sulman is a Paralegal in the residential property department here at Hart Brown.

He deals with residential property matters including the purchase and sale of freehold and leasehold properties and otherwise assisting the department in wider areas of property law.

He has over 7 years’ experience, predominantly in property, and the matters he assists with have included residential and commercial sales and purchases, development of land, new build, lease extensions and enfranchisement and property litigation.

Sulman graduated in 2007 with an LL.B and in 2008 with an LL.M Master of Law from University College London (UCL). He is an Associate member of The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives and is currently compiling his professional portfolio for qualification as a Chartered Legal Executive.