My wife and I are refinancing our penthouse in Swiss Cottage with Nationwide. We have a son approaching twenty who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose 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 apartment is repossessed. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this form unique to the Nationwide conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Nationwide 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 Nationwide. This is solely used to protect Nationwide 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 Nationwide 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.
Why do I have to pay up front for conveyancing in Swiss Cottage?
Where you are retaining lawyers for conveyancing in Swiss Cottage your lawyer will ask you place them with monies to cover the the cost of the conveyancing searches. Generally this is asked for to cover the fees of the Local Authority Search. If any deposit is as part of the purchase price then this will be needed immediately in advance of exchange of contracts. The closing balance that is needed should be sent to your lawyer a couple of days prior to the completion date.
My Solicitor in Swiss Cottage has never been on on the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society Approved Panel. Is it possible for me to retain my family solicitor even though they are not on the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society panel?
Your options are as follows:
- Complete the purchase with your existing Swiss Cottage solicitors but Norwich and Peterborough Building Society will need to use a conveyancer on their panel. This will result in additional total legal fees as well as cause delays.
- Get a new solicitor to act in the purchase, not forgetting to check they are on the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society panel
I'm purchasing a new build house in Swiss Cottage benefiting from help to buy. The developers would not budge the price so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The sale representative suggested that I not inform my solicitor about this side-deal as it will jeopardize my mortgage with the lender. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the UK Finance website. UK Finance 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.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £245,000 and identified one round the corner in Swiss Cottage I like with amenity areas and station in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 52 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Swiss Cottage for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?
If you need a home loan that many years may be an issue. Discount the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current owner has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you may ask them to start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor regarding this.
Me and my husband have just had an offer agreed on a flat and had an appointment on Wednesday with Leeds Building Society for the mortgage. They have informed me that when it comes to selecting a conveyancer that if they are not on their approved list of conveyancers then we will have to pay out an additional fee of £250+. This is because they will then have to instruct a solicitor to act on their behalf in addition to the one we select on our behalf and we are liable for their fees. I have requested Leeds Building Society to send me with a list so I can obtain quotes only from their approved lawyers but was told they dont have such a list to hand over. Is there a simple way of finding out who is on a lender panel?
Ask Leeds Building Society what their panel criteria is for a conveyancer.Then ask the lawyer of your choice whether they fit that criteria and have they acted on loans for Leeds Building Society in the past. Where the answer to those is yes, then just double check with Leeds Building Society. Alternatively please utilise our search facility and we may be able to find you a property lawyer in Swiss Cottage on the approved list for Leeds Building Society.