My wife and I intend to remortgage our apartment in St Annes with Nationwide. We have a son 19 who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the apartment is repossessed. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this document specific to the Nationwide conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 4 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish his entitlement to inherit the property?

On the face of it your lawyer has done nothing wrong as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to Nationwide. This is solely used to protect Nationwide if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of Nationwide had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.

I am selling my home in St Annes. Will my conveyancing practitioner need to be on the Principality conveyancing panel in order to deal with paying off my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Principality conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their conditions fairly frequently at the moment.

Have purchased a a terraced house in St Annes , What is the estimated time for the Land Registry to deal with the formalities evidencing my ownership? My St Annes conveyancing solicitor has been painfully slow, so I want to check the registration is concluded.

There is nothing unique when it comes to conveyancing in St Annes registration formalities. Rather than based on location, timeframes can vary depending on the party submitting the application, whether there are errors and if the Land registry must send notices to any interested parties. Currently approximately 80% of such applications are fully dealt with within two weeks but some can be subject to extensive hold-ups. Historically registration is effected once the buyer has moved in to the property thus registration formalities is not usually top priority but if it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your solicitor should communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for the application to be prioritised.

My husband and I are new on the property ladder - had an offer accepted, yet the selling agent has warned us that the owners will only move forward if we use their chosen conveyancers as they want a ‘quick sale’. We would rather use a local conveyancer who is accustomed to conveyancing in St Annes

It is improbable the sellers are driving this. Should the seller desire ‘a quick sale', taking such a hostile approach to a genuine buyer is is going to put the whole deal at risk. Speak to the owners direct and explain that (a)you are keen to buy (b)you are excited to move forward, with finances arranged © you do not need to sell (d) you wish to move quickly (e)but you intend to appoint your own,trusted St Annes conveyancing solicitors - not the ones that will provide the negotiator at the agency a introducer fee or achieve conveyancing figures pre-set by head office.

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in St Annes. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

I purchased a 1st floor flat in St Annes, conveyancing having been completed in 1997. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Equivalent flats in St Annes with a long lease are worth £222,000. The ground rent is £50 per annum. The lease runs out on 21st October 2094

With only 70 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as costs.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more detailed due diligence. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.