My fiance and I intend to remortgage our apartment in St Albans with Coventry BS. We have a son approaching twenty who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the apartment is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Coventry BS conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 5 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 Coventry BS. This is solely used to protect Coventry BS 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 Coventry BS 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 had intended to instruct a conveyancing solicitor in St Albans for our house purchase. Our financial adviser informed us that our bank Bank of Ireland won't deal with them. Why is this not regarded as unfair competition?
A lender may insist on a panel solicitor act for it. Borrowers are expected to bear the charges for this. Try using our tool to locate a solicitor to carry conveyancing in St Albans on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel.
I have recentlydiscovered that Stirling Law have closed. They conducted my conveyancing in St Albans for a purchase of a leasehold apartment 10 months ago. How can I establish that my home is in my name in the name of the previous owner?
The quickest way to see if the property is in your name, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of St Albans conveyancing specialists.
I'm refinancing my current home to a buy to let mortgage with Bank of Ireland and I will use the ballance of the raised equity towards further property. The neighborhood we are talking about is St Albans. Will your conveyancers be able to act for the two lenders and tie in the conveyances?
Do use our search tool on this site to ensure that the lawyers are on the relevant lender panels. Having checked that they are the lawyer should be able to connect the two transactions but you should have a chat with you lawyer and communicate your expectations and needs.
My husband and I are four weeks into a residential purchase having been directed to solicitors by the high street agent to do our conveyancing in St Albans. I am not happy. Could you help me find new lawyers?
They would have to be very poor in order to consider diss instructing them. Has your loan offer been generated? If so you will need to inform them of the new lawyer and get the mortgage documents are issued to the new lawyers. Your conveyancer should be on the mortgage company panel to avoid escalating expenses and delays. That should be your first question of the new solicitors. The search tool will assist you in finding a lender approved solicitor for your conveyancing in St Albans
Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my basement flat in St Albans. Conveyancing has not commenced, but I have just had a half-yearly service charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?
It best that you clear the service charge as normal as all rents and service payments should be allotted on completion, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the purchaser for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.
St Albans Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing
-
It would be prudent to discover as much as you can concerning the company managing the block as they will either make your life much easier or much more difficult. As the proprietor of a leasehold property you are often in the clutches of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to every day issues like the tidiness of the common parts. Ask prospective neighbours what they think of them. On a final note, find out the dates that you are obliged pay the service charge to the relevant party and specifically what you get for your money. It would be wise to investigate if the the lease includes any onerous restrictions in the lease. For instance some leases prohibit pets being allowed in in a block in St Albans. If you love the propertyin St Albans but your cat is not allowed to make the move with you then you will be faced hard choice. What restrictions exist in the St Albans Lease?