My partner and I swapping mortgage lender for our flat in Tower Hill with Bank of Ireland. We have a son 19 who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who lives in the flat. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Bank of Ireland 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?

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 Bank of Ireland. This is solely used to protect Bank of Ireland 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 Bank of Ireland 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.

Is there a reason why leasehold purchase conveyancing in Tower Hill costs more?

Tower Hill leasehold conveyancing transactions usually involve additional investigations than freeholds including investigating the Lease, liaising with the Landlord such as serving applicable notices on the Landlord or managing agent, obtaining up-to-date service charge and management information, obtaining Landlord’s consents and reviewing management accounts and formation documents.

Is there a search tool that I can use to find out if the solicitor carrying out my conveyancing in Tower Hill is on the mortgage lender’sconveyancing panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for Alliance & Leicester thus spending £187.00 plus VAT in supplemental legal costs.

You should take advantage of the find a conveyancing panel solicitor tool on this site. Please choose the lender and type ‘Tower Hill’ or your preferred area and you will be presented with a number of lawyer located in Tower Hill or nearest you.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £195,000 and found one close by in Tower Hill I like with amenity areas and station nearby, however it's only got 52 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Tower Hill in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?

Should you need a home loan that many years may be problematic. Reduce the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you could ask them to start the process of the extension and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor concerning this matter.

I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Tower Hill. Before I get started I want to be sure as to the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and most are in Tower Hill - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

I inherited a garden flat in Tower Hill. Given that I can not reach agreement with the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the amount payable for a lease extension?

Most certainly. We are happy to put you in touch with a Tower Hill conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a Tower Hill flat is 1-41 Royal Tower Lodge 40 Cartwright Street in April 2013. the tribunal adding the agreed value of capitalised ground rents and the reversion the price to be paid for the freehold was £1,187,000 This case affected 41 flats. The unexpired lease term was 107 years.