We are purchasing a 1 bedroom apartment in Belvedere with a mortgage. We wish to retain our Belvedere solicitor, but the bank advise she’s not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the mortgage company panel conveyancing practices or keep our Belvedere solicitor as well as pay for one of their panel ones to represent them. We regard this is unjust; is there anything we can do?
No, not really. The mortgage offered to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the lender’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. Another option that might be available is for your Belvedere conveyancing solicitor to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.
My husband and I intend to remortgage our apartment in Belvedere with TSB. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the flat is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the TSB conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his rights 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 TSB. This is solely used to protect TSB 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 TSB 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.
My aunt pointed out to me me that in buying a property in Belvedere there may be various restrictions affecting the ability to carry out external alterations to the property. Is this right?
We are aware of anumerous of properties in Belvedere which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to carry out external alterations. Part of the conveyancing in Belvedere should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
We had instructed conveyancing lawyers based in Belvedere on the RBS solicitor panel. They are now charging me an additional amount for dealing with the RBS mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee specified by RBS?
As unfair as it may appear, as long as it’s in their Terms of Engagement or estimate then yes your property lawyer may levy a fee for this. This charge is not set by RBS but by your Belvedere solicitor. Numerous firms on the RBS panel will levy ’dealing with mortgage’ fee but some practices include it on their overall fee.
I recently had an offer agreed on a house in Belvedere. My financial adviser suggested a lawyer. I paid an on account payment of £200. Not long after, the property lawyer contacted me to say that they were not on the Co-operative conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Co-operative panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
I am downsizing from our house in Belvedere and according to the buyers it appears that there is a risk of it being constructed on contaminated land. Any local lawyer would know that there is no such problem. It does beg the question why the purchasers instructed a nationwide conveyancing firm as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in Belvedere. We have lived in Belvedere for 4 years we know of no issue. Should we contact our local Authority to seek clarification that there is no issue.
It would appear that you have a conveyancing firm already. Are they able to advise? You must enquire of your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out life insurance to cover that same sickness)
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my home are lost. The solicitors who conducted the conveyancing in Belvedere 10 years ago have long since closed. Will I be able to sell the house?
Assuming the title is registered the details of your ownership will be evidenced by the Land Registry with a Title Number. It is easy to perform a search at the Land Registry, find your house and obtain current copies of the Registered Entries for a small fee. Where the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will in most cases hold a certified duplicate of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be ordered for £20 inclusive of VAT.
I have been on the look out for a flat up to £245,000 and found one close by in Belvedere I like with a park and transport links in the vicinity, however it's only got 61 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Belvedere suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a lease with such few years left?
Should you need a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term will be an issue. Reduce the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you can request that they 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.