My wife and I are refinancing our apartment in Waterloo with Nationwide. We have a son approaching twenty who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this document specific to the Nationwide conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we bought 3 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 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.
I am told that my conveyancing solicitors will need to check that the building insurance for my purchase of a house in Waterloo. My lender is The Mortgage Works
The Mortgage Works have specific requirements as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. As of 23/8/2026, the requirements read as follows :
I used Arc property Solicitors several years past for my conveyancing in Waterloo. I now require my file however the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?
Do call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Waterloo of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously retained, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £195,000 and found one close by in Waterloo I like with a park and railway links in the vicinity, however it's only got 51 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Waterloo suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a lease with such few years left?
If you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease may be problematic. Discount the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you can request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor regarding this matter.
I am looking to sell my property. My past conveyancers closed down. It would be helpful to have a recommendation of a conveyancing firm. I happen to live in Waterloo if that makes things easier.
Please use our search tool to help you find a solicitor for your conveyancing in Waterloo. We have connected thousands of home buyers and sellers with lender approved solicitors to ensure that the legalities of their house move runs with a minimum of fuss.
Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Waterloo from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?
- Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Waterloo can be avoided where you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers’ representatives. If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should ensure that you hold the original share certificate. Obtaining a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming formality and frustrates many a Waterloo conveyancing transaction. If a new share is required, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this sooner rather than later. If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where a dispute is unresolved. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to present the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled. Many freeholders or Management Companies in Waterloo charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Waterloo.
Leasehold Conveyancing in Waterloo - Examples of Queries Prior to Purchasing
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Please note if it is less than 80 years it will have adverse implications on the value of the apartment. Check with your mortgage company that they are content with residual term of the lease. A short lease means that you will most likely have to extend the lease at some point and you need to have some idea of how much this would cost. Remember, in most cases you would be required to have owned the property for 24 months in order to be legally able to extend the lease. The best form of lease arrangement is if the freehold reversion is owned by the leaseholders. In this arrangement the leaseholders enjoy control and although a managing agent is often employed where the building is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent retained by the leaseholders. In the main the outlay for major works are not incorporated into the maintenance charges, albeit that a few managing agents in Waterloo ask tenants to pay into a reserve fund and this is used to offset against larger repairs or maintenance.