My wife and I swapping mortgage lender for our flat in Burslem with . We have a son approaching twenty who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 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 apartment is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this document specific to the 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 . This is solely used to protect 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 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.

It is a dozen years since I bought my home in Burslem. Conveyancing solicitors have just been appointed on the sale but I am unable to find the title deeds. Is this a problem?

Don’t worry too much. Firstly the deeds may be kept by the mortgage company or they could be in the possession of the solicitor who acted in the purchase. Secondly in most cases the land will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors procuring up to date copy of the land registers. Most conveyancing in Burslem relates to registered property but in the rare situation where your property is not registered it is more problematic but is not insurmountable.

I got the keys to my home on 11 June and the transaction details are still not registered. Should I be concerned? My conveyancing solicitor in Burslem advises it will be registered inside ten days. Are titles in Burslem particularly slow to register?

As far as conveyancing in Burslem is concerned, registration is no faster or slower than anywhere else in England and Wales. Rather than based on location, timescales can vary depending on the party submitting the application, whether it is in order and whether the Land registry communicate with any third parties. At present roughly three quarters of such applications are completed in less than three weeks but some can be subject to extensive hold-ups. Registration is effected once the buyer is living at the premises thus an expedited registration is not always an essential issue yet where there is a degree of urgency associated with the registration then you or your solicitor could communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for an expedited registration.

Taking into account that I am about to spend over three hundred thousand on a two bedroom apartment in Burslem I would like to have a conversation with the lawyer regarding theconveyancing in advance of appointing the firm. Can this be arranged?

This is something that we recommend - we would be pleased to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you first talking to the conveyancer due to be carrying out your conveyancing in Burslem.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - every client is an important person, not a case number. The practices that we put you in touch with believe that the fees you are calculated and presented to you for residential conveyancing in Burslem should be the amount on the final invoice that you end up paying.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Burslem - A selection of Queries before Purchasing

Can you tell me if there are any major works in the near future that will add a premium to the service fees? It is important to be aware if a new roof is being put on or some other significant cost is coming up that will be shared by the leaseholders and will materially increase the the maintenance fees or require a one off invoice. For many Burslem leaseholds the cost for major works are not wrapped into the maintenance charges, albeit that a few managing agents in Burslem require leasehold owners to pay into a sinking fund created for the specific purpose of establishing a fund for major works.