Legal Issues

If you are buying a house in Chorltonville, there are a number of matters (beyond the usual) that your solicitor may want to consider. All Committee members give their time voluntarily to the management of Chorltonville and make considerable effort to respond promptly, but please don’t let your solicitor leave requests for information until the last moment – it could delay your house sale or purchase.

The levy

You may wish to ask your vendors to produce a receipt for the current levy. They will need to get this from the Treasurer. Please allow a fortnight for this to be produced.

What happens about the levy in the year a house is sold?

The owners at the time the levy notice is issued, in February of each year, have the responsibility to pay the levy for the whole year. You can ask your solicitor to time-apportion the levy as part of the settlement on completion of the sale of the property. Solicitors for both purchasers and vendors usually ask to see evidence that payments are up to date so you will need to request your vendor to provide a receipt for the latest year and sometimes seek confirmation of this from the Committee directly.

See the levy page for more information.

Chief Rents

If you own the freehold on your home, you may still have to pay a small rent annually to the chief rent owner. In some cases, householders are obliged to collect it from their neighbours, and some of the chief rent owning companies aggressively pursue 'chief rents'.

The Chorltonville Owners' Committee has nothing to do with Chief Rents. You can buy the 'chief rent', either by negotiation with the owner, or through the Government Office for the North West under The Rentcharges Act 1977, which provides a cheap route for rentcharge payers to free themselves of the annual rentcharge through a lump sum payment. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rentcharges#how-to-redeem-your-rentcharge

You may wish to ask your solicitor to establish the position with your vendors in good time before completion.

Building Works and development

Because Chorltonville is a Conservation Area, works which do not usually require planning permission may well require it here. You may wish to check the position regarding any recent works with your vendors.

Access to property

Although the roads have not been adopted by Manchester City Council, the fact that they have been in use by the public for over 90 years since the houses were built means that they have become deemed to be public, subject to the requirement that houseowners contribute to the cost of enjoyment of that access.

Other pages with legal information:

• The levy
• Conservation Area
• Tree pruning
• Roads
• Gullies
• Verges

If you are selling a house, time might be saved if you collect together receipts for payments of the Levy and any Chief Rent, together with any planning permissions.