My husband and I changing mortgage lender for our penthouse in Chesterton with UBS. We have a son 19 who lives with us. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the flat is forfeited by the lender. I have two concerns (1) Is this document specific to the UBS conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your UBS conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing 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 UBS. This is solely used to protect UBS 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 UBS 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 recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Chesterton. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an upfront payment of £150. Soon after, the conveyancer called me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Skipton conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Skipton panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.

I am due to exchange contracts on my apartment. I had a double glazing fitted in April 2006, but did not receive a FENSA certificate or Building Regulation Certificate. My buyer's lender, Virgin Money are being problematic. The Chesterton solicitor who is on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel is happy to accept ‘lack of building regulation’ insurance but Virgin Money are requiring a building regulation certificate. Why do Virgin Money have a conveyancing panel if they don't accept advice from them?

It is probably the case that Virgin Money have referred the matter to their valuer. The reason why Virgin Money may not want to accept indemnity insurance is because it does not give them any reassurance that the double glazing was correctly and safely installed. The indemnity insurance merely protects against enforcement action which is very unlikely anyway.

After shopping around on the internet I have found a Chesterton property lawyer having made sure that they are on the Lloyds conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?

Lloyds will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Lloyds will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your property lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Chesterton postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Lloyds, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Chesterton.

I used Arc property Solicitors a few years past for my conveyancing in Chesterton. I now require my file however the law firm has closed. What do I do?

Do call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Chesterton of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously retained, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £195,000 and identified one round the corner in Chesterton I like with open areas and transport links nearby, however it's only got 52 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Chesterton for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a short lease?

Should you need a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will be an issue. Reduce the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you could ask them to start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer regarding this matter.

I am purchasing a maisonette with all finances in place. My solicitor has been given with two separate proof of photographic identification, bank statement, endless utility bills. Now he requires a copy from a probate lawyer stating that the funds are in order and that it has come from inheritance and not dealing E's in Ibiza.

In today’s world you will not be able to complete any Chesterton conveyancing transaction without first providing evidence of your identity to your lawyers. This usually takes the form of a either your passport or driving licence and a utility bill. Remember if you are providing your driving licence as evidence of ID it must be both the paper part and photo card part, one is not acceptable without the other. Proof of your source of funds is required under Money Laundering laws.