A caveat is a legal notice which is lodged on the title to a property.
Most titles are electronic these days, and a caveat is lodged with the Land Registry. The person lodging the caveat is called the "caveator". If you want to lodge a caveat, you must have a caveatable interest, which means you must have an interest of some sort in the property.
A caveat is a powerful tool because it can stop the owner of the property from selling or transferring a property... and can also warn other people that you have an interest in the property in question. The caveat appears on the property title, meaning anyone who searches the title will see the caveat and know that you have an interest in the property.
Lodging a caveat can help protect your interest in a property however, if you wrongly lodge a caveat, both you and your lawyer can suffer costs and consequences.
Some people believe that they can lodge a caveat on a person’s property if they are owed money. That is not the case unless the person who owns the property consents to the caveat or the person who is owed the money can otherwise show they have a caveatable interest.
There are various circumstances that give rise to a right to lodge a caveat, including when you purchase a property (contractual interest), if you are a beneficiary of a deceased estate, or if you have an equitable interest in a property, in which case you must establish a sufficient connection to the property. This can be difficult to establish.
Noy Legal is often asked to lodge caveats, and if you have any questions about caveats or want to know whether you have a caveatable interest, please contact us.
On the other hand, if someone has lodged a caveat on your property, you may want to know whether you can apply to have the caveat withdrawn!
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