My wife and I swapping mortgage lender for our apartment in Queensferry with Lloyds. We have a son approaching twenty who lives with us. 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, waiving any legal rights in the event that the flat is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this form unique to the Lloyds conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we bought 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his entitlement to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Lloyds 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 Lloyds. This is solely used to protect Lloyds 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 Lloyds 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 am considering mortgaging my apartment in Queensferry, does my lawyer need to be on the Virgin Money Conveyancing panel?
There is nothing to stop you using your solicitor, but Virgin Money will insist on their interests being represented by a firm on their conveyancing panel. There is greater potential for delays and confusion with two solicitors involved, and it will undoubtedly be more expensive too.
I have a terraced Edwardian house in Queensferry. Conveyancing practitioner acted for me and Barclays . I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are a couple of entries: the first freehold, the second leasehold under the matching property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You should read the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Queensferry and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also enquire as to the situation with your conveyancing solicitor who carried out the work.
Due to the encouragement of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Queensferry prior to appointing solicitors. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. My surveyor has said that some lenders may refuse to issue a mortgage on a flying freehold home.
It varies from the lender to lender. HSBC has different instructions from Nationwide. If you call us we can investigate further with the appropriate lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Queensferry. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Queensferry to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
We're first time buyers - agreed a price, but the agent has warned us that the vendor will only issue a contract if we instruct the agent's preferred conveyancers as they want a ‘quick sale’. My instinct tells me that we should use a family conveyancer accustomed to conveyancing in Queensferry
We suspect that the seller is unaware of this request. If they require ‘a quick sale', turning down a genuine buyer is likely to cause more damage than good. Bypass the agents and go straight to the owners and explain that (a)you are genuine buyers (b)you are ready to go, with finances in place © you do not need to sell (d) you wish to move quickly (e)however you are going to use your own,trusted Queensferry conveyancing firm - as opposed tothose that will give the negotiator at the agency a referral fee or meet his conveyancing thresholds pre-set by corporate headquarters.
How easy is it to change a solicitor as I need to find a Queensferry based conveyancer who is on the bank conveyancing panel. Is it practical to instruct different lawyers?
In the event that you have not formally appointed a conveyancer to do anything for you and have just received quotes, you're perfectly free to choose a different solicitor to carry out your work for you. The best way is to get recommendations from friends or family who have actually used the solicitor or conveyancer in Queensferry that you're thinking of instructing.