My fiance and I intend to remortgage our penthouse in Heysham with Santander. We have a son 18 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify 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 forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this document specific to the Santander conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his entitlement to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Santander 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 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.
I purchased a freehold house in Heysham but still invoiced for rent, why is this and what is this?
It is rare for properties in Heysham and has limited impact for conveyancing in Heysham but some freehold properties in England (particularly common in North West England) pay an annual sum known as a Chief Rent or a Rentcharge to a third party who has no other legal interest in the land.
Rentcharge payments are usually between £2.00 and £5.00 per year. Rentcharges date back many centuries, but the Rent Charge Act 1977 barred the establishment of fresh rentcharges from 1977 onwards.
Old rentcharges can now be extinguished by making a lump sum payment under the Act. Any rentcharges that are still in existence in 2037 is to be dispensed with completely.
I am selling my apartment in Heysham. Will the solicitor have to be required to be on the Skipton conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Skipton conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their conditions fairly frequently in recent years.
A relative advised me that in buying a property in Heysham there may be various restrictions preventing external alterations to a property. Is this right?
We are aware of anumerous of properties in Heysham which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to external changes. Part of the conveyancing in Heysham should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
I happen to be the sole recipient of my late grandmother’s estate and I have everything in my name alone, including the my former home in Heysham. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in June. I want to move. I understand that there is a Mortgage Lenders six month 'rule', which means that my proprietorship may be considered the same way as if I'd bought the property in June. Do I have to wait half a year to sell?
The CML handbook requires solicitors to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you could be caught by that. How practical a view mortgage companies take of it, depend on the lender as this provision chiefly exists to capture the purchase and immediately sell or the flipping of properties.
Completion of my purchase has taken place for my property in Heysham. Conveyancing was a necessary evil but I feel I should register my dissatisfaction about the lender. How does one go about formally complaining?
Almost all lenders have complaints procedures. Your first port of call should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Care Team at head office. In most cases complaints to a lender are resolved very quickly. However if you are not satisfied that the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR with full details of your complaint.
I'm buying my first flat in Heysham benefiting from help to buy. The developers would not reduce the amount so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The estate agent advised me not disclose to my lawyer about the deal as it could impact my mortgage with HSBC Bank. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML 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 have been on the look out for a flat up to £195,000 and identified one round the corner in Heysham I like with amenity areas and railway links nearby, however it only has 51 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Heysham for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a short lease?
If you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease will be problematic. Reduce the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you may request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor regarding this.