My fiance and I intend to remortgage our penthouse in Midhurst with Skipton. We have a son 19 who lives with us. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this form unique to the Skipton conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we bought 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish his rights to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your Skipton conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing 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 Skipton. This is solely used to protect Skipton 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 Skipton 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 does a local search tell me regarding the property my wife and I purchasing in Midhurst?

Midhurst conveyancing often commences with the applying for local authority searches directly from your local Authority or via a personal search organisations for example Onsearch The local search plays a central role in many a Midhurst conveyancing purchase; that is if you don’t want any nasty once you have moved into your new home. The search will reveal data on, amongst other things, details on planning applications applicable to the property (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of 13 topic areas.

I own a semi-detached Edwardian house in Midhurst. Conveyancing lawyer represented me and Chelsea Building Society. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold with the matching address. Is it worth asking Chelsea Building Society to clarify?

You should review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Midhurst and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they mortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also enquire as to the situation with the conveyancing lawyer who conducted the conveyancing.

I decided to have a survey completed on a property in Midhurst in advance of retaining lawyers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold element to the property. Our surveyor advised that some banks will not issue a loan on a flying freehold premises.

It depends who your proposed lender is. Lloyds has different instructions from Halifax. If you contact us we can look into this further via the relevant bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Midhurst. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Midhurst to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Midhurst from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Midhurst can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers’ conveyancers.
A minority of Midhurst leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers. In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Midhurst state that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord consenting to such alterations. If you dont have the approvals in place you should not contact the landlord without contacting your conveyancer before hand. If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a flat where a dispute is unresolved. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to ongoing. If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should make sure that you hold the original share document. Organising a replacement share certificate is often a lengthy formality and delays many a Midhurst home move. Where a new share certificate is needed, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Midhurst - A selection of Questions you should ask before buying

How much is the ground rent and service charge? Are any of leasehold owners in dispute over their service charge liability? The best form of lease structure is if the freehold interest is owned by the leaseholders. In this scenario the lessees have control and notwithstanding that a managing agent is often retained if it is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants.