My wife and I are refinancing our maisonette in Hatton with Skipton. 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, giving up any rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Skipton conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this compromise 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 Skipton. This is solely used to protect Skipton 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 Skipton 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.
The Hatton conveyancing solicitors that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Hatton have suddenly closed. I chose them because I had to have a solicitor on the Santander conveyancing panel and my previous Hatton lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take one hundred and fifty pounds for searches. What are my options?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Santander conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors should be in a position to assist.
Forgive me if this question is silly but I am unexperienced as a first time purchaser of a ground floor flat in Hatton. Do I pick up the keys to the house on the completion date from my lawyer? If so, I will appoint a local conveyancing solicitor in Hatton?
On the day of completion you will not be required to attend the conveyancers office in Hatton. Your solicitors will electronically transfer the completion advance to the vendor’s conveyancers, and once they have received this, you will be invited to receive the keys from the selling Agents and move into your new home. Usually this occurs between 1 and 3pm.
I currently have a mortgage with Nationwide for my property in Hatton. Conveyancing was finalised a year ago. Should I wish to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Nationwide?
Your original mortgage agreement with Nationwide will provide that you need their approval before renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Nationwide’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Nationwide will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Nationwide directly. You need not do this via a Nationwide conveyancing panel firm.
I am due to exchange contracts on my flat. I had a double glazing fitted in June 2006, but did not receive a FENSA certificate or Building Regulation Certificate. My purchaser’s mortgage company, Yorkshire BS are being problematic. The Hatton solicitor who is on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel is happy to accept ‘lack of building regulation’ insurance but Yorkshire BS are insisting on a building regulation certificate. Why do Yorkshire BS have a conveyancing panel if they don't accept advice from them?
It is probably the case that Yorkshire BS have referred the matter to their valuer. The reason why Yorkshire BS may not want to accept indemnity insurance is because it does not give them any reassurance that the double glazing was correctly and safely installed. The indemnity insurance merely protects against enforcement action which is very unlikely anyway.
Will commercial conveyancing searches reveal proposed roadworks that could affect a commercial property in Hatton?
Its becoming the norm that commercial conveyancing solicitors in Hatton will perform a SiteSolutions Highways report as it dramatically cuts the time that conveyancers spend in sourcing accurate data on highways that impact buildings and development assets in Hatton. The report sets out definitive data on the adoption status of roads, footpaths and verges, as well as the implication of traffic schemes and the rights of way surrounding a commercial development sites in Hatton.
For every commercial conveyancing transaction in Hatton it is crucial to investigate the adoption status of roads surrounding a site. Failure to identify developments where adoption procedures have not been addressed adequately may cause delays to Hatton commercial conveyancing transactions as well as pose a risk to future intentions for the site. These searches are not carried out for residential conveyancing in Hatton.
I used Arc property Solicitors a few years past for my conveyancing in Hatton. I now require my papers however the law firm has closed. What do I do?
You should call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracing your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Hatton of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously hired, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
I need to assess costs for conveyancing in Hatton from three conveyancer and decide on one. Do I tell them to hold tight until I have found somewhere to purchase.
We would recommend that you wait to request your property lawyer to open a file and apply for searches after the sales memorandum has been sent by the selling agent especially as Hatton conveyancing searches are not cheap.