My wife and I are intent on acquiring property in Hornchurch. My Conveyancer is not on the lender solicitor panel. Am I still permitted to retain my Hornchurch conveyancing solicitor notwithstanding that they are excluded from the lender panel?

Various options include

• Proceed with your preferred Hornchurch solicitor but your mortgage company will no doubt retain a conveyancing practitioner from their approved list. This will result in additional cost together with likely frustration.
• Appoint a fresh property lawyer to conduct the conveyancing, obviously checking they are on the bank conveyancing panel.
• Convince your conveyancer to pull out all the stops to join the lender’s panel of solicitors

My wife and I are refinancing our maisonette in Hornchurch with HSBC. We have a son 19 who lives with us. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults 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 property is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this document specific to the HSBC conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 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 HSBC. This is solely used to protect HSBC 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 HSBC 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.

As someone unfamiliar with the Hornchurch conveyancing process what’s the number one tip you can impart concerning the ownership transfer in Hornchurch

Not many law firms shout this from the rooftops but conveyancing in Hornchurch and elsewhere in England and Wales is an adversarial process. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there exists lots of room for conflict between you and other parties involved in the transaction. E.g., the seller, estate agent and on occasion the bank. Selecting a lawyer for your conveyancing in Hornchurch should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY person in the process whose interest is to look after your legal interests and to keep you safe.

We are witnessing a distinct ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone must be blamed for the process taking so long. We recommend that you your first instinct should be to trust your conveyancer above the other players when it comes to the legal assignment of property.

My uncle passed away 10 months ago and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in Hornchurch. The house had a relatively small loan remaining of approximately £8000. I want to transfer the title deeds into my name whilst I re-mortgage to Barclays, pay off the mortgage. Is this possible?

If you intend to refinance then Barclays will require that you use a conveyancer on the Barclays conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Barclays conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Barclays mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.

My wife and I have recently appointed a conveyancing solicitor in Hornchurch. I need to find out if they are on the bank's conveyancing panel. Could you assist?

One option is to call the solicitor to enquire if they are on the bank's panel. If that does not help call us and we can investigate and revert. Should the firm not be on the lender panel we we can help find a quality conveyancing solicitor in Hornchurch on the approved list for your lender.