A Deed of Covenant is a legally binding agreement whereby one party covenants with the other to perform certain obligations (to pay rent and service charge, to deal with assignment requirements etc.) and/or observe certain restrictions (not to cause nuisance, obstruct common parts etc.).
A lease is usually a large document and lays out what the leaseholder of any particular property is, and is not, allowed to do and the responsibilities of the leaseholder and the freeholder. When small changes need to be made to the document it is preferred to append this to the lease rather than write the entire lease again. The document that is appended to the lease is called a "Deed of Variation" but it must be agreed and signed by both the leaseholder and the freeholder (or his agent).
This is the agreement between the Landlord and Tenant which gives details of ground rent to be paid and terms to be adhered to, such as serving notice and paying fees at transfer of ownership of the property, restrictions to the use of the property and restrictions to changes that can be made without the Landlord's permission.
A Notice of Charge is the notification sent to the landlord/management company providing details of any mortgages on the property. This is so that if you, as the borrower, fail to pay ground rent or service charges you landlord/management company will notify the lender who may pay the charges and then add the cost to your mortgage.
The retail prices index (RPI) is one of the two main measures of consumer inflation produced by the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics. The RPI tracks changes in the cost of a fixed basket of goods over time, and is produced by combining about 180,000 price quotes for over 650 representative items.
A lease is a period of time that you own the property for usually when it sits on land owned by someone else (the freeholder). A flat for example will usually be leasehold as it will be on land owned by a freeholder. A short lease is anything under 80 years. Lease details are important when considering buying a property as most mortgage companies will not lend on short leases. You should also consider how the length of the lease will affect the resale of the property and the price when you come to move as extensions of leases can be expensive.
A certificate of compliance is a document required by the Land Registry to confirm that all the covenants of the lease have been complied with. This will be issued by the Landlord (if they are the beneficiary of the restriction) so the Land Registry can lift the restriction from the official records.
A Licence to Assign is permission to sell the property in question. A Licence to Assign is granted by the Freeholder to the current Leaseholder. Where a lease requires a Licence to Assign before the lease can be sold it would be a breach of the lease to sell the property without such consent.
