My wife and I are refinancing our maisonette in Southwell with Coventry BS. We have a son 18 who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify 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, giving up any rights in the event that the apartment is repossessed. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this form unique to the Coventry BS conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up 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 Coventry BS. This is solely used to protect Coventry BS 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 Coventry BS 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.

I am helping my sister sell her property in Southwell. Does the conveyancer order the energy assessment or it is for the seller to coordinate?

After the demise of Home Packs, energy performance certificates became a mandatory element of selling a house. An energy performance certificate must be commissioned before the property is advertised. This is not something that conveyancers ordinarily organise. Where you are using a Southwell conveyancing solicitor they may help arrange EPC’s due to their contacts with reputable local energy assessors

My fiancee and I are at the point of viewing flats in Southwell and I am about to put in an offer. Is it sensible to have my property lawyer on ‘stand by’? I am planning to take a mortgage with Coventry BS.

You should start obtaining conveyancing estimates from solicitors ASAP. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their details on to the estate agent. As you are getting a mortgage with Coventry BS, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.

My offer was accepted on a house in Southwell on 18/8/2025, valuation was booked 3 days after, received a clean bill of health. Conveyancer retained, so all that was missing was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to RBS and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the RBS conveyancing panel. Can the lender hold off the offer?

Mortgage companies tend not to not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for RBS to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the RBS conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.

four months have elapsed following my purchase conveyancing in Southwell concluded. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £160,000. Why the discrepancy?

The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the asset from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.

How does conveyancing in Southwell differ for new build properties?

Most buyers of new build property in Southwell come to us having been asked by the seller to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the property is constructed. This is because house builders in Southwell typically acquire the land, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct property lawyers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are accustomed to new build conveyancing in Southwell or who has acted in the same development.

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in Southwell where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Southwell conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Southwell - Sample of Questions you should ask before Purchasing

Plenty Southwell leasehold flats will have a service bill for maintenance of the building set by the management company. Should you buy the flat you will have to meet this charge, usually in instalments during the year. This may differ from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built blocks. In all probability there will be a rentcharge to be met yearly, this is usually not a exorbitant sum, say approximately £50-£100 but you should to enquire as occasionally it could be surprisingly expensive. Please note if it is less than 80 years it will have adverse implications on the marketability of the apartment. It is worth checking with your mortgage company that they are content with the length of the lease. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will most likely have to extend the lease at some point and it is worth finding out what this will be. For most Southwelllease extensions you will be be obliged to have owned the residence for a couple of years before you are entitled to extend the lease. How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments?