My fiance and I swapping mortgage lender for our penthouse in Sea Mills with Leeds Building Society. We have a son approaching twenty 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. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the apartment is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this form unique to the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 4 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your Leeds Building Society 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 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 are purchasing a property and the lawyer has identified Chancel Repair to which the property may be liable given it’s proximity to the area of such a church. She has suggested insurance. Is this really warranted for conveyancing in Sea Mills

Unless a prior purchase of the property completed post 12 October 2013 you could take it that solicitors delivering conveyancing in Sea Mills to continue to propose a a chancel search and or insurance against a claim.

I used Arc property Solicitors several years past for my conveyancing in Sea Mills. I now require my papers however the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?

Do contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Sea Mills of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously hired, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

I'm purchasing a new build house in Sea Mills with the aid of help to buy. The developers would not reduce the amount so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The house builders rep advised me not to tell my conveyancer about this deal as it would impact my mortgage with the lender. Should I keep quiet?.

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.

There are only Seventy years unexpired on my flat in Sea Mills. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What are my options?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to find the landlord. For most situations a specialist should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report which can be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Sea Mills.

Sea Mills Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries Prior to buying

The majority of Sea Mills leasehold properties will have a service charge for the upkeep of the block set on behalf of the landlord. Should you acquire the property you will have to meet this amount, normally periodically throughout the year. This could be anything from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a rentcharge to be met annual, ordinarily this is not a large sum, say about £50-£100 but you need to enquire as sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds. How is the lease structured? Generally speaking the cost for major works tend not to be included within service charges, although some managing agents in Sea Mills require tenants to pay into a sinking fund and this is used to offset against major works.