Tag: Property

Conveyancing: Taking the pain out of your property purchase
Buying and selling property can be a confusing process, especially for first timers. Ahead of National Conveyancing Week, Lucy Callington finds out why the role of the conveyancer is such an important and valuable part of the process.
Most people know what an estate agent is and how they can help you find, buy or sell a property, but conveyancing – an equally important part of the process – is less well understood. Choosing a reliable conveyancer can help your property transaction go smoothly and allow you to feel informed and updated throughout the journey.

National Conveyancing Week runs from 17-21 March 2025 and is the chance for over 500 law firms nationally – including Histon’s Hayward Moon – to advocate, inspire and promote the vital role conveyancers play in the home moving process. What better time then to shine a light on exactly what your conveyancer can help you with?

A step by step guide
Conveyancing is the legal process that takes place behind the scenes when ownership of a property is transferred from a seller to the buyer. It can start when your offer is accepted, and last until after the sale is completed.
Although most sales and purchases follow a broadly similar process, every transaction is unique. The process that your conveyancer will follow might look something like this:
- Once the buyer has chosen the property they would like to buy and agreed the purchase price, the buyer and seller will each instruct a conveyancer to represent them.
- Both sets of conveyancers will start by asking their clients for various details upfront, such as proof of identity and evidence of funds for the purchase.
- The seller’s conveyancer will ask them to complete property information forms and then gather information relating to the property from the Land Registry. Based on this they will prepare a draft contract and send it to the buyer’s conveyancer, together with other relevant documents and property information forms.
- The buyer’s conveyancer will check all these document and then apply for searches against the property and report back on any issues they may raise. Both parties and their clients will then go back and forth until all such enquires are ironed out and both the buyers and their conveyancer are satisfied with the answers they receive.
- Once the buyer’s conveyancer has satisfactory replies to the enquiries, results of searches and the mortgage instructions (if needed) they will then report to the buyer and check if they are happy to proceed. They can then sign a copy of the contract and leave it undated with the conveyancer in readiness for exchange of contracts.
- The seller’s conveyancer will similarly ask the seller to sign an identical copy of the contract in readiness, and discuss a completion date with them. At this point the buyer will be required to pay a deposit, which is usually 10% of the purchase price and this will be transferred via their conveyancer’s bank account.
- Finally, both conveyancers will clear up any outstanding enquiries on the paperwork until the buyers and their conveyancers are satisfied, and then exchange and completion can go ahead.
Avoiding the pitfalls
Conveyancing can do some of the heavy lifting in what can be a process fraught with unexpected snags. A few of these include:
- Boundary disputes and incorrect property descriptions – these can cause delays and lead to disputes between neighbours. Conveyancing can resolve existing boundary disputes or inaccuracies before completing the transaction.
- Easements and Restrictive Covenants– these are legal rights or restrictions which may impact your use or enjoyment of the property, such as shared driveways, rights of way and access to utilities. Covenants can govern issues such as building restrictions or limits on permitted use.
- Property Fraud and Identity Theft – your conveyancer will verify the identity of the property sellers and other parties involved in the transaction through identity checks.
- Leasehold and Freehold Property Complexities – Your conveyancer will be able to advise you on the lease terms, including any restrictions or obligation that may impact on your ownership.
- Environmental and Planning Issues – Environmental issues such as contamination, flooding or subsidence can cause legal issues and financial burdens. Your conveyancer will advise you of the searches that can be undertaken to diagnose these.
Join Hayward Moon at its new High Street Histon office for a Women’s Aid charity coffee morning from 10am-midday on Thursday 20 March. All welcome for cake and a chat!
READ ALSO: New High Street home for Hayward Moon | HI HUB
13/03/2025
The house that Dave built – passing the Passivhaus standards
Park Lane residents Dave Pountney and Jo Bishop recently moved into their brand new Passivhaus where Val Robson was invited to take a look around and find out more about the story behind this innovative building project
The first Passivhaus was built in 1991 in Austria for Professor Wolfgang Feist, a physicist at the University of Innsbruck. Wolfgang Feist believed it possible that a house could be built which had no need for energy or fuel to maintain a comfortable living temperature all year-round. Worldwide, there are now over 70,000 Passivhaus buildings including Dave and Jo’s newly constructed detached house on Park Lane which they moved into last autumn after thirteen happy years overlooking the windmill in Impington.
Construction of a Passivhaus tends to cost approximately 20% more than a traditionally constructed house due to the high quality of materials used and the need to use specialist trades people for some elements of the work but it’s likely to be valued around 10% more than its traditional equivalent and the ongoing lower energy expenditure, especially in these current times, is an important benefit to be considered.
Keeping it natural
With over fifty years experience within the construction industry, Dave has been involved in the building of about twenty five Passivhaus structures standing him in good stead for the challenges that lay ahead. To be officially certified as a Passivhaus, a building must adhere to some basic principles which minimise heat loss and make maximum use of natural heat sources whilst also ensuring that fresh air is well circulated.
Polystyrene foundations Photo: David Pountney
Laying concrete on top of polystyrene foundations Photo: David Pountney
The building has to be free of thermal bridges which would allow heat to be conducted away from the building. Dave and Jo’s house is built on a 300ml thick polystyrene raft located underneath the concrete base while the walls are 325ml thick and pumped full of cellulose – basically chopped up newspaper. The roof has 300ml of cellulose with an extra 100ml of solid insulation on top to be sure it complies with the Passivhaus requirements.
The outside of the property is clad with Siberian larch, a hardy tree native to Western Russia, and, due to the intense cold in which these trees exist, they grow very slowly. This makes for a very tight grain giving great durability as well as an incredibly attractive finish. “When I ordered the Siberian larch”, Dave elaborated “the supplier told me that he did not expect to be able to source any more due to the impending war in Ukraine so to be sure that I ordered sufficient for the work needed”.
As required by the Passivhaus standard, all of the windows are triple glazed and there has to be extremely good airtightness so a special tape is used to seal all joints in the house including around the windows, between panels on the walls and any other joints such as around pipes and ducts.
A house with standards
MVHR in plant room Photo: David Pountney
Air ducts showing sealant tape Photo: David Pountney
The high standards of insulation and lack of air leakages mean very little heat is required to maintain the house at a comfortable living temperature. Dave explains “all the heat in the house comes from body heat, the sun and any appliances”. During my visit, the house was a very comfortable 20C and had a fresh, light and airy feel to it; attributable largely to the efficient ventilation. Another key element of a Passivhaus.
The air circulation is controlled by the MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery) unit located in the ground floor central plant room. A network of large ducts connect this to inlets and outlets in the ceilings of the house and the living areas have inlets in the ceiling which push fresh filtered warmed air into the room. The kitchen, utility room and bathrooms have outlets, sucking out air, which then goes through the heat exchanger where 85% of the heat is re-used to warm the incoming fresh filtered air. The stale air is then expelled. Alongside the fresh air feel to the house there is no sense of the air moving which makes for a very calming and quiet atmosphere.
Come in from the cold
Mid construction Photo: David Pountney
For use during extreme cold, the house is fitted with underfloor heating on the ground floor and, shortly after my visit, this was put through its paces during a highly unusual period of sub zero temperatures which persisted for ten days. Dave reported back to me “I have to admit that, when it was -9C outside, we were incredibly grateful for this feature!”. A Passivhaus is allowed to have a heating system, but it has to use less than 15 kilowatt hours per square metre per annum to comply – the average yearly figure for existing houses in the UK is 200 kwh/m2!
Water tank in plant room Photo: David Pountney
The plant room is also home to the hot water tank. This is a very sophisticated piece of kit with its own diaphragm that moves up and down so that it is only containing the amount of water the occupants wish to heat. Dave controls this from an app on his phone and the LEDs on the side of the tank show the heating and water level statuses too.
Although the main construction is complete on the house there is still much work to be done before Dave and Jo get official Passivhaus certification on their home. Shading and overhangs will be added to the windows to ensure that they are not only protected from the elements during the cold months but also from the sun during hotter times. The orientation of a Passivhaus is also crucial with the majority of the windows needing to be facing south to catch the maximum sun. Dave and Jo were fortunate in that the plot is orientated in a way that allowed the house to be constructed in optimum orientation to make the most of solar energy. They also have fourteen solar panels which help with the energy bills.
The final test
There then remains one final, but very important, test that Dave has to commission in order to gain the coveted Passivhaus certification and this is to prove that the house falls within the Passivhaus standards of airtightness. Explaining what’s involved Dave told me “they will bring in a big fan which will be set up in one of the door or window openings. In order to pass the test there should be no more than 0.6 air changes per hour at a pressure of 50 Pascals. This equates to having no one hole, or several combined, which would total more than the size of a 20p piece throughout the entire house”.
Wall plaque received after certification is completed
Once this test is complete, and all the documentation is passed by the The Passivhaus Trust who are the official UK affiliate of the International Passive House Association, Dave and Jo will receive a plaque which can take pride of place on the wall of their fabulous new home!
11/01/2023
£1 for a share in the future of the village
Have you ever thought ‘our community ought to own that building/land’? Well the Histon and Impington Community Land Trust has been set up to do just that. Eddy Moore explains why it has a vital role – and how everyone can show their support.
Residents of Histon and Impington will shortly be receiving a brochure through their doors from Histon and Impington Community Land Trust (HICLT). The Trust was set up last year to help create affordable and sustainable housing that will meet the growing needs of the village.
As well as looking for opportunities to purchase land for building much needed homes, it can support a range of other needs in our community, such as helping to save a building or improve local amenities.
READ ALSO: Local community land trust needs your support
Meeting local needs
As a not-for-profit organisation, HICLT intends to be an organisation which will help meet housing needs and also ensure that the assets developed locally stay local and are invested to benefit our community.
Look out for this leaflet
The Trust is a truly local organisation, run by volunteers who are committed to creating affordable housing in the community, so that fewer young people and local workers have to move away to find a home of their own.
People have lost faith in developers and Housing Associations to provide the type of housing needed for the whole community. Housing costs in Histon and Impington are very high and when other organisations develop homes the financial gains made do not stay within our local community.
Because it is owned by the local community, HICLT is also well placed to ensure that developments meet the design aspirations of local people and preserve the nature of the local environment.
Community owned
We have all heard people say “The Community ought to acquire that”. Well, here is a local organisation that can make this happen. HICLT can obtain grants, take out loans and accept donations to purchase land, to hire contractors, and to build and manage properties of a type that are needed in our community.
But HICLT will not only be concerned with housing. As a registered charity, it will be able to provide associated facilities, amenities and services for the advancement of health, wellbeing and leisure, and provide workspace buildings.
A nearby CLT in Haddenham, set up in 2015, has recently completed a development on the edge of the village. This is providing nineteen new homes, a mix of one, two and three bedroom properties seventeen at affordable rents and two for shared ownership. The first residents moved in in January.
Naturally, the HICLT needs to be self-sufficient. In the early days, most of the income will come from the grants and loans available to Community Land Trusts. Later on though, rents paid on properties or shared ownership will generate profits, and these must be ploughed back into the community.
Looking at CLTs already running just in Cambridgeshire, it does not take many years before these new income streams can start supporting more community ventures.
Get involved
Importantly, the assets generated will be owned by the community and anyone who lives, works or has a close relative in the village can buy a £1 membership share and get involved. Follow the link and sign up here https://hiclt.org/membership/
Everyone potentially has a say. All members will be able to vote at the AGM and any other general meetings called to take major decisions. There are also lots of opportunities for volunteers with enthusiasm and skills to make a difference to our locality.
To register your interest, or to buy your £1 membership, email hello@hiclt.org
For more details, see the website at https://hiclt.org or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/hiclt
30/06/2021
A final farewell to Burdett House
Burdett House, the Supported Living residence in Station Road Histon for the past 22 years, has finally closed its doors after Covid delayed plans for its sale.
Residents were forewarned in September 2019 of the possible closure and the final decision to do so was made at the end of January 2020 following an 18-month review into its viability.
No way ahead
Burdett House is owned by housing charity the Abbeyfield Society and until recently was home for up to 17 people aged 80 and older.
Built on land left by the Chivers family, it enabled residents to live independently. With less intensive care support than in care homes, but more than in sheltered housing, it was unique in its local provision in the village.
After Abbeyfield announced the possible closure, local residents started to campaign for it to remain. A four-month consultation period began, during which the Board engaged openly with the community on their proposals to keep the house open.
But no suitable proposals could be found to guarantee the long-term financial sustainability of the house and the charity finally concluded that there was no viable way ahead and took the difficult decision to close.
Tony Raphael was part of the campaign to keep Burdett House open. He sees its closure as leaving a real gap in care provision in this area and very difficult to justify. “Its closure is a tragedy. It is a victim of poor marketing”, he told HI HUB.
“Burdett House had it all”, he said. “Brilliant village location, fantastic caring staff, lovely surroundings, a feeling of an extended house rather than a large retirement complex with gyms, pool and saunas etc. It was tailor made for the older individual who just wanted to relax in a pleasant, small community, environment and not have to worry about the daily chores of cooking, washing, vacuuming… and very affordable. There are, unfortunately, many fewer residences of this ‘Very Sheltered Housing’ type now available around the country.”
Moving on
The original intention was for all residents to have moved to new accommodation by the end of June 2020. This was postponed when the pandemic took hold, as many older people were shielding and government policy prevented house viewing and moves.
When restrictions were lifted, residents were supported to move to suitable alternative accommodation before the house closed last year.
Tony’s mother, now 98, has moved to a near equivalent residence in Gloucestershire. “She loved being at Burdett House and misses the easy social interaction that she had there”, he said.
Now that the last resident has gone, staff have also moved on, with the former manager Annelize Vanzyl now working at Abbeyfield Girton and coming over to Histon as needed. Surplus items no longer needed from the premises have been donated to local charity The Besom.
Estate agents have been appointed to sell the property, which will go on the market soon, and the funds released will be reinvested into the charity.
10/06/2021