My husband and I swapping mortgage lender for our maisonette in Chester with HSBC. We have a son 18 who lives with us. 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, giving up any rights in the event that the flat is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this document specific to the HSBC conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 3 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 HSBC. This is solely used to protect HSBC 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 HSBC 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.

Why is leasehold purchase conveyancing in Chester costs more?

In summary, leasehold conveyancing in Chester and elsewhere usually warrants additional hours of investigation compared to freehold transactions. This includes reviewing the lease, communicating with the landlord concerning serving appropriate notices, obtaining up-to-date service charge and management information, securing the landlord’s consents and reviewing management accounts. The obligations on both the landlord and the tenant in the lease need to be studied by the buyer’s conveyancing team and read from beginning to end – regardless of the fact the lease has passed through many different property solicitors hands since it was first granted.

I am helping my niece sell her flat in Chester. Does the solicitor arrange the energy assessment or it is for the owner to coordinate?

Following the demise of Home Information Packs, energy assessments remained a mandatory component of moving house. An energy performance certificate must be to hand before the property is advertised. It is not a task that lawyers normally arrange. Where you are using a Chester conveyancing practitioner they may be willing to arrange EPC’s given their contacts with reputable local accredited person

My solicitor has informed me that missing deeds insurance is needed on my purchase. What is the typical level of cover needed for conveyancing in Chester?

The right level of missing deeds indemnity insurance depends on your lender. It would differ for example between Santander and Bank of Scotland. Conveyancing practitioners as opposed to members of the public take out such insurances.

I have paid off my mortgage with Barclays. I assume I don't need a Chester conveyancer on the Barclays panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?

If you have finished paying off your Barclays mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Barclays mortgage from the register. Barclays, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:

1. but are not moving to another property
2. where Barclays has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
3. Barclays has instructed the Land Registry to do so

The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build flat in Chester. Conveyancing is a frightening process at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build conveyancing.

Here is a sample of a few leasehold new build questions that you may expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Chester

The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. Please supply a car parking plan. Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease. If there are lifts in the building, please confirm that the owners of flats on the ground and basement floors will not be required to contribute towards the cost of maintenance and renewal. Where service of notices and proceedings can be at the property demised please confirm that this can be amended to include simultaneous services at the Lessees’ solicitors’ offices where the Lessee from time to time is not resident in the UK - such solicitors may be varied by notice in writing to the Landlord from time to time but otherwise will be as previously specified.

I own a leasehold flat in Chester. Conveyancing was finished in 2010. I have heard that I mustn’t let the the remaining lease term to fall too low. What is the reasoning?

Chester domestic long term leases are for a prescribed term - often just under one hundred years when they started. However a significant appartments in Chester were built or converted 25 or more years ago and so these leases now have less than 80 years unexpired. This may seem like a long time however Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage lenders on the whole need leases to have a minimum of seventy five years unexpired to adequate security. This means that when you come to sell the property you will need a lease extension if you are nearing eighty years. To increase your property value you should be thinking about whether or not to extend your lease well in advance of selling the property. You should note that there are advantages to doing so before the lease hits 80 years as when the lease is below 80 years the amount to be paid to extend starts to get a lot more expensive.