My wife and I are refinancing our penthouse in Tilbury with Leeds Building Society. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the property is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this document specific to the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we bought 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.

Why is leasehold purchase conveyancing in Tilbury is more expensive?

The conveyancing charges on a leasehold property in Tilbury is frequently higher than on a freehold acquisition or disposal. This is due to the extra investigations required in communicating with the freeholder and management company to obtain evidence concerning whether the rent and service charges have been paid and whether there are any large sums expected to be spent in the foreseeable future on repairs or maintenance of the building.

Me and my partner are buying a apartment in Tilbury. It might be a silly question but how we can trust a solicitor? On the day of competition we will need to deposit 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.

My stepmother advised me that in buying a property in Tilbury there may be various restrictions prohibiting external alterations to a property. Is this right?

There are a number of properties in Tilbury which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to perform external variations. Part of the conveyancing in Tilbury should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.

I am currently in the process of buying my council flat in Tilbury. I have a mortgage offer with Skipton. Conveyancing is new to me. Can I proceed without a solicitor easily? I think we can but we keep being told I should have one. Any advice?

It is not advisable to proceed with a house purchase without a solicitor. The council's solicitor are not acting for you. You need a solicitor for a number reasons. One of which is to verify what plans the Council have for repairs and refurbishment for the next five years. Many leaseholders have been stung for contributions of thousands of pounds. In any event, if you are getting a mortgage with Skipton, you will need to appoint a solicitor on the Skipton conveyancing panel.

The deeds to our property are lost. The lawyers who did the conveyancing in Tilbury 5 years ago have long since closed. What are my next steps?

As long as you have a registered title the details of your proprietorship will be evidenced by HMLR under a Title Number. It is easy to conduct a search at the Land Registry, identify your house and secure current copies of the property title for a small fee. If the title is Leasehold then the Land Registry will also normally retain a file duplicate of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be ordered for twenty pounds.

Are Tilbury conveyancing solicitors duty bound by the Law Society to publish transparent conveyancing costs?

Contained within the Solicitors Code of Conduct are set rules and regulations as to how the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) allow solicitors to publicise their fees to clients.The Law Society have practice note giving advice on how to publicise transparent charges to avoid breaching any such rule. Practice notes are not legal advice issued by the Law Society and is not intended as the only standard of good practice a conveyancing solicitor should adhere to. The Practice Note does, however, represent the Law Society’s view of acceptable practice for publicising conveyancing charges, and accordingly it’s a recommended read for any solicitor or conveyancer in Tilbury or across England and Wales.