My husband and I are refinancing our penthouse in Chulmleigh with Santander. 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 two concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Santander 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?

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 Santander. This is solely used to protect Santander 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 Santander 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 was advised by three or four local property agents in Chulmleigh to get a quote from a conveyancer using your seach tool. Is there a financial advantage for Estate Agents to promote your site ahead of a competitor’s?

We don’t make any referral fee for sending work in our direction. We found it would be just too difficult to pay a commission as home movers will think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not getting any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.

In my capacity as executor for the estate of my grandfather I am selling a house in Newport but I am based in Chulmleigh. My lawyer (based 300 miles from meneeds me to execute a statutory declaration before the transaction finalising. Could you suggest a conveyancing practitioner in Chulmleigh to witness and place their company stamp on the document?

strictly speaking you are not likely to need to have the documents witnessed by a conveyancing solicitor. Normally any notary public or qualified solicitor will be fine regardless of whether they are Chulmleigh based

I am looking at a two apartments in Chulmleigh which have in the region of fifty years left on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Chulmleigh is a wasting asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The closer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the value of the premises. The majority of purchasers and mortgage companies, leases with under 75 years become less and less attractive. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a property with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Chulmleigh conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease. They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

I own a 2 bed flat in Chulmleigh, conveyancing having been completed half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Corresponding properties in Chulmleigh with a long lease are worth £216,000. The ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2095

With just 70 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more detailed investigations. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.

The solicitors undertaking our conveyancing in Chulmleigh has sent documents to review that indicate that the land is unregistered with epitome documents. Why is the property not registred at HM Land Regsitry?

It is rare for premises in Chulmleigh to be unregistered. An 'epitome' is basically a dossier of photocopies of documents affecting an unregistered title. Many Chulmleigh conveyancing practitioners will be familiar with this type of conveyancing but if any uncertainty reigns the conventional advice these days is for the seller to undertake the registration formalities first and then deal with the dispose of the property to the purchaser - this will have a domino effect to result in a prolonged home move.