My husband and I changing mortgage lender for our apartment in Grasmere with Principality. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this form unique to the Principality conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we bought 5 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Principality 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 Principality. This is solely used to protect Principality 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 Principality 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 wanted to use a property lawyer in Grasmere for our house purchase. Our broker informed us that our mortgage lenders Barnsley Building Society won't deal with them. Surely this is unfair competition?
A lender can direct that a panel conveyancer act for it. You would be expected to meet the cost of this. Try using our directory service to select a solicitor to carry conveyancing in Grasmere on the Barnsley Building Society approved list of solicitors.
My wife and I are close to exchanging contracts on the sale of our property in Grasmere and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a risk of it being built on contaminated land. Any high street Grasmere conveyancer would know that there is no such problem. For the life of me I don't know why the purchasers used a nationwide conveyancing firm as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in Grasmere. We have lived in Grasmere for many years we know of no issue. Do we contact our local Authority to get confirmation need.
It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing lawyer already. What do they say? 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 ailment)
How does conveyancing in Grasmere differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build residence in Grasmere come to us having been asked by the developer to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the premises is completed. This is because developers in Grasmere usually purchase the land, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancing solicitors as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Grasmere or who has acted in the same development.
What advice can you give us when it comes to appointing a Grasmere conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?
If you are instructing a property lawyer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Grasmere conveyancing practice) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We advise that you make enquires with several firms including non Grasmere conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. The following questions could be useful:
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What volume of lease extensions have they completed in Grasmere in the last 12 months? If the firm is not ALEP accredited then why not?
Grasmere Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries before buying
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It is important to be aware whether fixing the lift or some other significant cost is due shortly to be shared between the leaseholders and will dramatically impact the level of the service costs or result in a specific payment. On the whole the outlay for major works are not included within service charges, albeit that a few managing agents in Grasmere require leasehold owners to contribute towards a sinking fund and this is used to offset against larger works.
My estate agent has suggested using their property lawyer for our conveyancing in Grasmere - Surely it’s advisable to just use them?
It is worth checking if the estate agent is recommending a lawyer or introducing to a conveyancing practitioner. There are plenty of Grasmere estate agents who recommend two or three Grasmere conveyancing firms and get nothing from it.