My husband and I intend to remortgage our apartment in Rocester with Skipton. We have a son 18 who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who lives in the flat. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document 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 concerns (1) Is this document specific to the Skipton conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we bought 4 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right 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.
Will my conveyancing lawyers need to check that the building insurance when buying a house in Rocester. My lender is Nationwide Building Society
Nationwide Building Society have specific requirements as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. As of 30/10/2025, the requirements read as follows :
Please help - my lawyer advises that chancel insurance is required on my purchase. What is the typical level of cover needed for conveyancing in Rocester?
The appropriate level of chancel indemnity insurance should be dictated by who your lender. It would differ for example between Lloyds TSB Bank and Bank of Scotland. Conveyancing solicitors as opposed to borrowers take out such insurances.
is it true that all Rocester solicitor practices on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel are overseen by the SRA?
As a firm of solicitors, in order to be on the Virgin Money approved list of solicitors they would need to be governed by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. Some lenders do list licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such organisation would be governed by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.
It is not clear whether my lender requires a lease extension. I have called into my local Rocester building society branch on various occasions and was informed it wasn't a problem and they would lend. My Rocester conveyancing solicitor - who is on the lender conveyancing panel- telephoned and was told they would not lend based on their published requirements. Who do I believe?
Your conveyancing practitioner must comply with the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook section two provisions for your bank. Unless your lawyer obtains specific confirmation in writing that the lender will go ahead, your lawyer has no choice but to refrain from exchanging contract and committing you to the purchase. We would suggest that you ask the lender to contact your lawyer in writing confirming that they will accept the number of years remaining.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a property I put an offer in a fortnight ago in what was supposed to be a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. Rocester is the location of the property. Is there any advice you can impart?
Flying freeholds in Rocester are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Rocester you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds diligently. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Rocester may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold residence.
Last May I purchased a leasehold house in Rocester. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?
Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.
If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).
Rocester Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing
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How much is the annual service fee and ground rent? Does the lease have in excess of 82 years unexpired? Where a Rocester lease has no more than eighty years it will affect the value of the flat. Check with your mortgage company that they are happy with the length of the lease. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will probably require a lease extension sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of how much this would cost. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the property for two years in order to be eligible to carry out a lease extension.
My fiance and I have recently had an offer accepted on a property and had meeting on Wednesday with Nationwide for the mortgage. They advised me that when it comes to choosing a conveyancing practitioner that if they are not on their approved panel of solicitors then we will have to pay out an additional fee of about two hundred pounds. This is because they will then have to appoint a conveyancer to act for them in addition to the one we choose to act for ourselves and we will be on the hook for their invoice. I have asked Nationwide to send me with a list so I can seek quotes only from their approved lawyers but was told that I need to check with each individual lawyer to see if they are on the panel. Is there a simple way of finding out who is on a lender panel?
You should ask Nationwide what their criteria for panel membership is for a conveyancer.Thereafter ask the property lawyer of your choice whether they fit that criteria and have they acted on mortgages for Nationwide before. Where the answer to those is yes, then just double check with Nationwide. Alternatively please use our search tool and we should be able to identify a solicitor in Rocester on the panel for Nationwide.