My husband and I are refinancing our maisonette in Biddenham with Leeds Building Society. 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. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the flat is repossessed. I have two concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we bought 5 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right 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 Leeds Building Society. This is solely used to protect Leeds Building Society 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 Leeds Building Society 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.
In what way does my ID and proof of funds have anything to do with my conveyancing in Biddenham? Why is this being asked of me?
You are right in the requirement set out by your solicitor has nothing to do with conveyancing in Biddenham. Nowadays you will not be able to complete any conveyancing deal in the absence providing evidence of your identity. Ordinarily this takes the form of a either your passport or driving licence as well as a bank statement. Remember if you are providing your driving licence as proof of ID it must be both the paper part as well as the photo card part, one is not acceptable without the other.
Verification of the source of funds is required in accordance with the Money Laundering Regulations. You should not be offended when when this is requested of you as your lawyer will need to retain this information on file. Your Biddenham conveyancing lawyer will need to see evidence of proof of funds prior to accepting any monies from you into their client account and they should also ask additional questions concerning the origin of monies.
The Biddenham conveyancing lawyers that just started acting on my purchase in Biddenham have suddenly shut down. I chose them because I had to have a solicitor on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel and my preferred Biddenham lawyer was not. I cut them a cheque for £250 in advance. What should be my next steps?
If you have an estate agent involved then inform them straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors may be able to help.
Will our lawyer be asking questions concerning flooding as part of the conveyancing in Biddenham.
Flooding is a growing risk for solicitors dealing with homes in Biddenham. Plenty of people will buy a property in Biddenham, fully aware that at some time, it may be flooded. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, where a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, satisfactory building insurance, or sell the property. There are steps that can be taken as part of the conveyancing process to forewarn the purchaser.
Lawyers are not qualified to impart advice on flood risk, but there are a number of checks that may be carried out by the buyer or on a buyer’s behalf which can figure out the risks in Biddenham. The standard completed inquiry forms given to a buyer’s conveyancer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) contains a usual inquiry of the vendor to discover if the property has suffered from flooding. If flooding has previously occurred which is not disclosed by the seller, then a buyer could bring a claim for damages as a result of such an inaccurate response. The buyer’s lawyers may also commission an enviro report. This will reveal whether there is any known flood risk. If so, further investigations will need to be carried out.
I have finally had an offer on an apartment in Biddenham agreed to, but there is a chain. The vendors have offered on a flat, although it’s not yet tied up, and are looking at other flats booked. I have selected a nearby conveyancing lawyer in Biddenham. What do I do now? When should I get the mortgage application with RBS started with RBS?
It is understandable to have concerns where there is an associated chain as you are unlikely to want to incur costs prematurely (home loan application is in the region of one thousand pounds, then valuation, Biddenham conveyancing search fees, etc). First, you should ensure that your lawyer is on the RBS conveyancing panel. Concerning the next stages this very much depends on the uniqueness of your transaction, desire for this property and on the state of the market. In a buoyant market some buyers will apply for the mortgage with RBS and pay for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they ask their solicitor to press on with searches.