My wife and I are refinancing our maisonette in Forest Gate with . We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify 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 repossessed. I have two concerns (1) Is this form unique to the conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we bought 5 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 . 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.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £305k and identified one close by in Forest Gate I like with open areas and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 52 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Forest Gate suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?

Should you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will be problematic. Reduce the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor about this matter.

I need to appoint a conveyancing solicitor for my conveyancing in Forest Gate. I happened to chance upon a site which appears to be the perfect offering If it is possible to get all this stuff completed via email that would be ideal. Should I be concerned? What are the potential pitfalls?

As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?

Forest Gate Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing

You should want to discover as much as you can about the managing agents as they will either make your living at the property much simpler or uncomfortable. As the proprietor of a leasehold property you are often at the mercy of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to every day issues like the tidiness of the communal areas. Enquire of other tenants what they think of them. On a final note, be sure you discover the dates that the maintenance charges are due to the relevant party and specifically what it includes. The answer will be helpful as a) areas may cause problems for the building as the common areas may begin to deteriorate if maintenance remain unpaid b) if the tenants have an issue with the managing agents you will need to have all the details It is important to be aware if redecorating or some other significant cost is due shortly that will be shared amongst the tenants and may well materially increase the the maintenance costs or require a specific invoice.

A licensed conveyancer handled my conveyancing in Forest Gate seven years ago having stored my deeds but has now closed – What can I do to retreive these?

Title deeds, as such, are no longer appropriate for the majority of homes in Forest Gate are recorded electronically at Land Registry. If you need to prove ownership or are disposing of or re-mortgaging your will need to obtain up to date copies of the register from the Land Registry in any case.

If you feel there may be other documents or you have any other queries please e-mail your request with details of the transaction and documents you need to filerequest@clc-uk.org. The CLC will let you know what information they have and any additional information they may need before they are in a position to identify and send the documents to you. Following an intervention it may take some time for the CLC to access archived files and documents, but your request will be actioned with reasonable haste.