Unilateral Notice - Option Agreement -Legal Jargon...???

aCilnv

Hi,

I wonder if anyone has any idea what this jargon means -

We are looking at buying a house - the owner passed away recently and upon my investigations, I saw that though the house is a freehold, a company applied with varied success to redevelop a part of the street - including this house (demolish 4 semi-detached homes and build loads of maisonettes). This was in 2007.

Upon looking at the land registry documents , under the section : Charges Register, I came across these 2 points - can anyone shed light on what it is , b) wether it affects me buying the property and c) if is has any effect on me once I've bought the property??

The points state :

4 (29.08.2007) UNILATERAL NOTICE in respect of an Option Agreement dated 17 August 2007 made between (1) Joe Doe and (2) Developments Plc.

5 (29.08.2007) BENEFICIARY: Developments Plc care of Wilkens, 22 Station Road , Oxford, OX1 9LD.


Many Many thanks in advanced !

Calvin

G_M

You will need to get hold of the Option Agreement dated 17 August 2007 and read it.

The Land Registry probobly (but not guaranteed) has a copy. Ring and ask.

phill99

An option agreement is an agreement between a landowner and a potential buyer. Property developers use them quite frequently. The property developer would have given the house owner a sum of money in exchange for the house owner effectively giving the developer 'first refusal' in the event that the house owner wished to sell his house.

By doing this on a number of houses that are adjacent to each other, the developer then knows that he has first refusal oover a larger site that he can then develop.

This is not the same as an exchange of contracts as the owner is not contracted to sell, nor is the developer duty bound to buy the land. Its just means that the opwner can't sell to anyone else if he decides to sell.

the Option is time limited in so far that it may run for a number of months 12, 24, etc) or a number of years (eg 5).

You need to get a copy of the option and find out how long it runs for. If it is still effective, the beneficiary of the option must be informed that the house is up for sale and they may wish to purchase it, which means you can't.

If the option is expired then you can purchase the house. But you need to get your solicitor to investigate this.

phill99

business_man wrote: »

Not quite right there, buyer with the Option Agreement would normally have a right to exercise his buying rights but in under no obligation.

On the other hand, seller who took "consideration" towards the Option Agreement is usually tied into it with very few get out clauses.

Yeah you are right. Think I've mis explained myself!

Land_Registry

G_M wrote: »

You will need to get hold of the Option Agreement dated 17 August 2007 and read it.

The Land Registry probobly (but not guaranteed) has a copy. Ring and ask.

There are some important points to make here with regards obtaining a copy of the Option Agreement to which you refer.

1. When a Unilateral Notice is registered there is no requirement to lodge the document referred to in the Notice - in most cases it will not be lodged
2. Electronic scanning of documents lodged with an application did not commence until 2009. Even if the Agreement was lodged it may be held in paper format and as such we would not be able to confirm via phone and a paper application would be required.

In the first instance I would recommend that you pursue the matter with the seller/their representative and not rely on Land Registry being in possession of the document.

However if you wish to pursue the matter on two fronts then you could make an application to the appropriate Land Registry office using form OC2 (using the title number and details from the register). The form and an office finder are available on our website. A fee of £12 made payable to Land Registry is required. If a copy of the document is available we will supply it. If it is not then the fee will be refunded.