The documents come before the price
We will not introduce you to a plot whose parent document and encumbrance certificate we have not read. It loses us listings and it is the whole service.
What we read before you see a plot
Six documents. Where one is missing we say the word "missing" rather than "being arranged", which is what most of the trade says.
Parent document and chain
Back thirty years, read rather than listed. A chain with a gap is a chain with a claim in it somewhere, and the gap is what we are looking for.
Encumbrance certificate
Pulled ourselves for the full period, not accepted from the seller. A certificate handed to you is a certificate somebody chose the dates on.
Patta and FMB sketch
Checked against what is physically on the ground, with a surveyor, before an advance. Boundaries move; paper does not.
Layout approval
The actual approval, with its number and its date, not a plan with an authority’s logo printed on it. We will tell you when a layout is unapproved rather than call it "approval pending".
Legal heirs and consents
Where the land came through inheritance, everybody with a share signs. One absent heir is the commonest reason a completed sale becomes a suit five years later.
Loan and lien status
Whether the parent document is with a bank, and what has to happen for it not to be. Discovered at registration, this stops a sale on the day.
How a purchase runs
Five steps, and the second one is the one nobody else does first.
What you actually want
Size, use and when you intend to build. A plot for building in two years and one for building in twelve are different purchases, and the second is an investment decision we will not advise on.
Documents, before the visit
We read them before you drive out. Roughly a third of plots we are offered never reach a viewing, which is the reason our list is short.
The visit, with a surveyor
Boundaries walked against the FMB sketch. It costs us a half day per plot and it is where the discrepancies actually appear.
A title opinion, before the advance
From an advocate you instruct, not from us. We will name three; whom you use is your decision and the opinion is yours rather than ours.
Registration
We attend. Our fee is due on registration and not before, which is the only alignment of interest that matters in this trade.
The desk, counted
From our own file, and none of it is about prices.
Before you pay anybody an advance
Four answers, and the second is the one this business is built on refusing.
Do you charge the seller as well?
No. Two per cent from the buyer, on registration, and nothing from the seller — an agent paid by both sides has no side. It is why our list is shorter than everybody else’s.
Will this plot appreciate?
We do not know and we will not guess. Anybody quoting you a percentage for land around a road that is "coming" is quoting you a road, not a plot. What we can tell you is what comparable plots actually registered at last quarter.
Can you arrange the approval?
No, and be careful of anybody who says they can. An unapproved layout is unapproved on the day you buy it, and "regularisation" is a process with an outcome nobody can promise you.
Do I need my own advocate?
Yes, and not ours. We will name three and step back — a title opinion from the introducer’s lawyer is an opinion with a relationship inside it, however careful everybody is.
Tell us what you want to build, and when
That answer decides more than the budget does. Half an hour on the telephone, and no fee until a registration happens.