My wife and I swapping mortgage lender for our maisonette in Upper Clapton with Co-operative. We have a son 18 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have two concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Co-operative 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 Co-operative. This is solely used to protect Co-operative 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 Co-operative 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.

Various internet forums that I have visited warn that are a common reason for hinderance in Upper Clapton house deals. Is this right?

The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) has noted the findings of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure amongst the most frequent causes of delays during the legal transfer of property. Searches are not likely to be the root cause of delay in conveyancing in Upper Clapton.

The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build apartment in Upper Clapton. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build conveyancing.

Set out below are examples of a selection of leasehold new build enquiries that you may expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Upper Clapton

The Vendor must covenant to keep unsold units in good repair until long leases are granted therefore. Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease. Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose? Will the freehold then be transferred for a nominal consideration (not exceeding £100) to the Management Company? The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme.

Given that I will soon part with £400,000 on a two bedroom apartment in Upper Clapton I wish to talk to a lawyer concerning theconveyancing prior to instructing the firm. Is this something that you can arrange?

We could not agree more - it is our preference to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you speaking to the solicitor who will be carrying out your conveyancing in Upper Clapton.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - each client is unique person, not a case reference. The law firms that we put you in touch with believe that the figure you are calculated and presented to you for your conveyancing in Upper Clapton should be the figure that you end up paying.

We have had DIP from Alliance & Leicester who said we could borrow up to £300k. At what point do we need to instruct a lawyer for conveyancing? Upper Clapton is where we are .

It would be wise to appoint a solicitor now so that the lawyer can open the ledger so they can conduct the AML checks etc. Once you wish them to commence work you will be asked for a deposit usually approximately £200. That would normally be after you have the mortgage offer and valuation report, nevertheless if you wish to expedite matters you can get going sooner albeit risking some money.