My partner and I intend to remortgage our flat in Chipping Campden with Co-operative. We have a son 18 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. 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 concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Co-operative conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish his rights 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 Co-operative. This is solely used to protect Co-operative 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 Co-operative 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.
We wanted to use a property lawyer in Chipping Campden for our home move. Our financial adviser has since notified us that our bank Britannia won't deal with them. Surely this is unduly restrictive?
Lenders ordinarily restrict either the category or the amount of conveyancing practices on their member panel. Typical examples of such criteria being that a law practice must not be a sole practitioner. As well as restricting the type of firm, a few banks have limited the number of firms they permit to act for them. You should note that Britannia have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Britannia Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a primary driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago even though there are mixed views regarding the level of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms, including some in or near Chipping Campden only execute very few conveyances per annum.
I have been told that property searches are a common reason for stalling in Chipping Campden house deals. Is that correct?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) released conclusions of research by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature within the common causes of delays during the legal transfer of property. Local searches are not likely to feature in any holding up conveyancing in Chipping Campden.
Me and my brother have a renovated Victorian property in Chipping Campden. Conveyancing solicitor represented me and Halifax. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw a couple of entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold with the matching property. I'd like to know for sure, how can I find out??
You need to review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Chipping Campden and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also check the position with your conveyancing practitioner who conducted the work.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £305k and identified one close by in Chipping Campden I like with open areas and transport links in the vicinity, however it only has 61 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Chipping Campden for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a lease with such few years left?
If you need a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term will be an issue. Reduce the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing proprietor has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you may request that they commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor concerning this matter.