My husband and I are refinancing our apartment in Lynmouth with Leeds Building Society. We have a son 18 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify 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 flat is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this form unique to the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 4 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish his entitlement 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 Leeds Building Society. This is solely used to protect Leeds Building Society 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 Leeds Building Society 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.
We're in Lynmouth, First time buyers purchasing with a mortgage (lender is Nottingham , and our lawyer is on the Nottingham conveyancing panel). How long should the conveyancing process take?
The fact that your lawyer is on the Nottingham conveyancing panel is a help. It would almost certainly delay matters if they were not. However, no conveyancer should guarantee a timeframe for your conveyancing, due to third parties outside of your control such as delays caused by lenders,conveyancing search providers or by the other side’s solicitors. The time taken is often determined by the number of parties in a chain.
We have agreed to purchase a house in Lynmouth. An unusual aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. Co-operative 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 your lender is Co-operative your lawyer must follow the conveyancing instructions set out in Section 2 of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Co-operative. The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook stipulates minimum conditions for solar panel roof-space leases, and property lawyers are required to report to Co-operative where a lease does not comply with these specifications. The conditions relate to the installation of panels on properties countrywide and is not isolated to Lynmouth.
I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Lynmouth. My mortgage broker suggested a conveyancer. I paid an advanced payment of £200. A few days later, the solicitor called me to say that they were not on the Aldermore conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Aldermore panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
Our sealed bid on a semi in Lynmouth has been agreed to, but there is a chain. The owners have put an offer on a flat, but it’s not been accepted yet, and are looking at other apartments in the pipeline. I have selected a high street conveyancing solicitor in Lynmouth. What should be my next step? At what point do I apply for the mortgage with Virgin Money?
It is understandable to have anxieties where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket too early (home loan application is in the region of one thousand pounds, then valuation, Lynmouth conveyancing search fees, etc). First, you should check that your conveyancing practitioner is on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel. As to the subsequent steps this very much dictated by the uniqueness of your case, attraction to this property and on the state of the market. During a hot market many buyers will apply for the mortgage with Virgin Money and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they pay their conveyancer to proceed with the conveyancing in Lynmouth.
I opted to have a survey carried out on a house in Lynmouth ahead of instructing solicitors. I have been told that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. Our surveyor has said that some banks may refuse to give a mortgage on such a property.
It depends who your proposed lender is. HSBC has different instructions for example to Nationwide. If you call us we can look into this further with the relevant lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Lynmouth. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Lynmouth especially if they are acquainted with such properties in Lynmouth.
I'm refinancing my current property to a buy to let loan with Godiva Mortgages Ltd and intend to use the remaining equity as a down payment on a second house. The location we are interested in is Lynmouth. Will your solicitors be able to act for both sets of lenders and link together the conveyances?
Do use our search tool on this site to check that the lawyers are approved by both banks. Having checked that they are your lawyer should be able to tie up the two deals but you should talk with you conveyancer and make apparent your desired outcome and requirements.