My husband and I are refinancing our flat in Knowle with Bank of Ireland. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the apartment is forfeited by the lender. I have two concerns (1) Is this document specific to the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 4 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 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.

My grandmother passed away six months ago and as sole heir and executor I was left the property in Knowle. The house had a small mortgage left on it of around £4500. I want to transfer the title deeds into my name whilst I re-mortgage to UBS, pay off the mortgage. Is this allowed?

Given you plan to refinance then UBS will require that you use a conveyancer on the UBS 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 UBS 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 UBS mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.

I am helping my niece sell her property in Knowle. Will the conveyancing solicitor arrange an energy performance certificate or do I organise this?

Following the abolition of Home Information Packs, EPC’s became a required element of selling a house. An energy assessment needs to be to hand prior to the property being placed on the market. This is not a task that solicitors normally organise. Where you are instructing a Knowle conveyancing lawyer they may be able to arrange energy assessments given their relationships with long established local energy assessors

I am buying a property in Knowle. An unusual aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. HSBC have issued a mortgage offer so presumably this is not a concern to them. Why is my solicitor raising questions about the panel?

Given that you are obtaining a mortgage with HSBC your lawyer must follow the conveyancing requirements outlined in Section two of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for HSBC. The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook includes minimum requirements for solar panel roof-space leases, and conveyancing practitioners are required to report to HSBC where a lease fails to meet these provisions. The requirements relate to the installation of panels on properties nationwide and is not isolated to Knowle.

Coventry BS have agreed my home loan in principle, my bid on a apartment in Knowle has been accepted, what happens next?

The estate agent will want to be informed of your conveyancing practitioner's details (ensure that the lawyers are on the bank’s approved list). Telephone Coventry BS or your financial adviser and complete any appropriate forms. Coventry BS will instruct a valuer who will get in touch with the selling agent or vendor to schedule a slot for the valuation to take place. Once carried out (assuming no problems) it takes about a week for the mortgage offer to be issued. Coventry BS will send the offer to you and your property lawyers. The legal work will then take it’s course according the nature and complexity of the conveyancing in Knowle.

I am buying my first flat in Knowle benefiting from help to buy. The builders would not move on the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of extras instead. The sale representative advised me not inform my conveyancer about this extras as it may impact my loan with The Mortgage Works. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.

I was recommended by a number of estate agents in Knowle to choose a conveyancer using your seach tool. Is there a financial advantage for Estate Agents to recommend your services over another?

We don’t give any commission for pointing buyers and sellers to this site. We thought it would be too underhand a fee because a client could think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I receiving any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.