My wife and I swapping mortgage lender for our apartment in Crabtree with Santander. We have a son 18 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose 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, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have two concerns (1) Is this document specific to the Santander conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we bought 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 Santander. This is solely used to protect Santander 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 Santander 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 Crabtree is more expensive?
The conveyancing fees on a leasehold property in Crabtree is often higher as compared to a freehold acquisition or disposal. This is due to the supplemental work necessary in dealing with the freeholder and management company to obtain information concerning whether the rent and maintenance fee have been discharged and whether there are any major works due in the near future on repairs or maintenance of the building.
Should our solicitor be asking questions regarding flooding during the conveyancing in Crabtree.
The risk of flooding is if increasing concern for solicitors conducting conveyancing in Crabtree. Plenty of people will buy a property in Crabtree, completely aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, if a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to obtain a mortgage, satisfactory building insurance, or sell the property. There are steps that can be taken during the course of a house purchase to forewarn the purchaser.
Lawyers are not best placed to offer advice on flood risk, but there are a number of checks that may be carried out by the purchaser or on a buyer’s behalf which can figure out the risks in Crabtree. The conventional set of property information forms sent to a buyer’s lawyer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) includes a standard inquiry of the owner to discover whether the premises has ever been flooded. If flooding has previously occurred which is not revealed by the vendor, then a buyer may issue a legal claim for losses as a result of such an misleading reply. A purchaser’s lawyers should also commission an environmental search. This will indicate whether there is any known flood risk. If so, additional investigations should be conducted.
3 months have gone by following my purchase conveyancing in Crabtree completed. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £175,000 when infact I paid £215,000. 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 property 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.
I have been on the look out for a ground for flat up to £305k and identified one close by in Crabtree I like with open areas and station nearby, the downside is that it's only got 61 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Crabtree for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a short lease?
Should you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease may be an issue. Discount the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you can ask them to start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor about this.
I require the services of a lender panel solicitor in Crabtree. Can you assist?
Unfortunately it’s not apparent why you need a Crabtree panel solicitor but in any event, if you can not find one on our search tool you will need to speak directly to the lender to find out which solicitors in Crabtree are on their panel . If you do find such a firm in Crabtree not listed please direct them to our site to list. At a fee of one pound per month it is not expensive to register on the site