My fiance and I intend to remortgage our apartment in Crystal Palace with Bank of Ireland. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults 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 forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish his entitlement to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Bank of Ireland 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 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.
We are intent on selling our house in Crystal Palace and according to the buyers it appears that there is a risk of it being built land that was not decontaminated. Any high street Crystal Palace conveyancer would know this is not the case. For the life of me I don't know why the purchasers instructed a web based conveyancing outfit rather than a conveyancing solicitor in Crystal Palace. Having lived in Crystal Palace for many years we know of no issue. Should we contact our local Authority to seek clarification need.
It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing lawyer 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 health insurance to cover that same illness)
I am buying my first flat in Crystal Palace benefiting from help to buy. The sellers would not move on the amount so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative suggested that I not inform my solicitor about this deal as it could put at risk my loan with the lender. Should I keep quiet?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the UK Finance website. UK Finance form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
I opted to have a survey done on a property in Crystal Palace prior to instructing conveyancers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. My surveyor has said that some banks will refuse to give a mortgage on a flying freehold home.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Bank of Scotland has different instructions for example to Nationwide. Should you wish to telephone us we can investigate further with the appropriate lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Crystal Palace. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Crystal Palace to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agency in Crystal Palace where we see a number of leasehold sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Crystal Palace conveyancing solicitors. Could you clarify whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?
Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.
Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the purchaser.
I am the proprietor of a two-bedroom flat in Crystal Palace. In the absence of agreement between myself and the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the sum due for the purchase of the freehold?
in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the LVT to arrive at the price payable.
An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Crystal Palace flat is Flat 1 4 Border Crescent in March 2012. the Tribunal decided that the sum payable by the Applicants to the Respondent in respect of the new lease for the subject property should be £11,616.00 (ElevenThousand and Six Hundred and Sixteen Pounds) This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 72.04 years.
I purchased a property in Crystal Palace last 3/7/2025 and to date it is still not recorded with HM Land Registry. It was part of a development site and my property lawyer told me that it can take twelve months to complete the registration formalities. I have called HM Land Registry directly and they have informed me the original application was cancelled due to questions not being addressed in time. Should I be concerned?
Call your conveyancer - Where you are unsatisfied with the responses, enquire as to their firm’s complaints protocol and amplify your problem to a Partner. Registrations for Crystal Palace conveyancing are not known to be particularly slow.