My wife and I changing mortgage lender for our penthouse in Hammersmith with Bank of Ireland. We have a son 19 who lives with us. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the flat is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this document specific to the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 4 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 Bank of Ireland. This is solely used to protect Bank of Ireland 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 Bank of Ireland 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.

What is the first thing I need to know about purchase conveyancing in Hammersmith?

You may not hear this from too many lawyers but conveyancing in Hammersmith and elsewhere in England and Wales is an adversarial process. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there exists plenty of room for friction between you and others involved in the transaction. For example, the seller, selling agent and sometimes the mortgage company. Selecting a law firm for your conveyancing in Hammersmith is a critical decision as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY party in the transaction whose interest is to act in your legal interests and to protect you.

We are witnessing a definite ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone has to be at fault for the process taking so long. We recommend that you should always trust your conveyancer above the other parties in the home moving process.

I have todayfound out that Wolstenholmes have been shut down. They carried out my conveyancing in Hammersmith for a purchase of a freehold house 18 months ago. How can I check that my home is not still registered in the name of the former proprietor?

The easiest way to check if the property is in your name, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Hammersmith conveyancing specialists.

I am looking for a flat up to £195,000 and found one near me in Hammersmith I like with open areas and station nearby, the downside is that it's only got 52 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Hammersmith for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a lease with such few years left?

If you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease may be problematic. Discount the price by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you may ask them to start the process of the extension and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this.

I need to retain a conveyancing solicitor for residential conveyancing in Hammersmith. I've stumble across a site which seems to have the perfect offering If it is possible to get all the legals completed via web that would be ideal. Should I be concerned? What should out be looking out for?

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?