My fiance and I swapping mortgage lender for our flat in Newark with Aldermore. We have a son 18 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the flat is forfeited by the lender. I have two questions (1) Is this form unique to the Aldermore conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 3 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this compromise his entitlement to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your Aldermore 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 Aldermore. This is solely used to protect Aldermore 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 Aldermore 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 wife and I are purchasing a house in Newark. It might be a silly question but how we can trust a lawyer? At some point we will need to put funds into their account. What is the protection we have from them run away with our money?

Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.

Are all Newark Conveyancing Quality Solicitors on the Skipton conveyancing panel?

A selection of banks and building societies now make use of the accreditation scheme as the kick off point for Panel membership such as HSBC and Santander. The Law Society’s CQS accreditation however is no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for firms wishing to remain on their approved list of firms.

I am purchasing a property in Newark. A rare aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. RBS 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 RBS your lawyer must check the formal requirements contained in Part 2 of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for RBS. The CML Handbook includes minimum conditions for solar panel roof-space leases, and lawyers are required to report to RBS where a lease does not satisfy these conditions. The specifications relate to the installation of panels on properties countrywide and is not restricted to Newark.

I opted to have a survey completed on a house in Newark prior to instructing solicitors. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold aspect to the house. The surveyor has said that some mortgage companies may refuse to give a mortgage on a flying freehold premises.

It depends who your proposed lender is. Bank of Scotland has different instructions for example to Nationwide. Should you wish to telephone us we can check with the relevant bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Newark. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Newark to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.

I work for a long established estate agency in Newark where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Newark conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the buyer.

Newark Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries Prior to buying

Does the lease contain onerous restrictions? Is anyone aware of any major works anticipated that could add a premium to the maintenance costs? Please note that where the lease has fewer than 80 years it will impact the marketability of the apartment. Check with your lender that they are happy with the length of the lease. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will most likely have to extend the lease sooner rather than later and it is worth discovering how much this will be. For most Newarklease extensions you will be be obliged to have been the owner of the residence for two years in order to be legally able to extend the lease.

How up-to-date is your search tool for the bank conveyancing panel in Newark? Do the mortgage companies send you an updated list?

Newark law firm practices and firms conducting conveyancing in Newark themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the bank conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from the mortgage company directly.