My partner and I intend to remortgage our flat in West Drayton with HSBC. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults 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 property is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this document specific to the HSBC conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his rights to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your HSBC 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 HSBC. This is solely used to protect HSBC 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 HSBC 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.
We intend to purchase a newbuild flat in West Drayton with a loan from Platform Home Loans Ltd.We use our West Drayton conveyancing lawyer but Platform Home Loans Ltd informed us his firm is not on their approved list of member firms. We have to appoint a Platform Home Loans Ltd panel solicitor or keep our high street solicitor and pay for one of their panel ones to represent them. This seems very unfair; is there anything we can do?
Unfortunately,no. The mortgage offered to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that conveyancers will be on the Platform Home Loans Ltd approved list. Until recently, most banks had large numbers of solicitors on their panels: a borrower could find one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for Platform Home Loans Ltd
I am purchasing a end of terrace house in West Drayton. We would like to convert the garage to an office at the property.Will the conveyancing process include checks to see if these works were previously refused?
Your property lawyer will check the registered title as conveyancing in West Drayton can on occasion identify restrictions in the title documents which prevent certain changes or require the consent of a 3rd party. Certain additions require local authority planning consent and approval under the building regulations. Many areas are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which often prevent or affect extensions. You should check these issues with a surveyor before you commit yourself to a purchase.
My wife and I are in the throws of viewing houses in West Drayton and I am about to put in an offer. Is it wise to have a lawyer on ‘stand by’? I intend to finance via a mortgage with RBS.
It would be sensible to commence your search sooner rather than later. Once you decide who you want to use and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their contact information on to the selling agent. Given that you are obtaining a mortgage with RBS, make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the RBS conveyancing panel.
I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Co-operative. I assume I don't need a West Drayton conveyancing practitioner on the Co-operative panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your Co-operative mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Co-operative mortgage from the register. Co-operative, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Co-operative has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Co-operative has instructed the Land Registry to do so
The deeds to our property are lost. The lawyers who did the conveyancing in West Drayton 4 years ago are no longer around. What are my next steps?
Assuming the title is registered the information relating to your proprietorship will be held by HMLR with a Title Number. It is easy to carry out a search at the Land Registry, identify your house and secure current copies of the property title for less than a fiver. Where the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will also normally retain a file copy of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be ordered for a small fee.
I am purchasing a new build house in West Drayton with a loan from Godiva Mortgages Ltd. The builders would not move on the amount so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent told me not disclose to my conveyancer about this side-deal as it could adversely affect my loan with Godiva Mortgages Ltd. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML 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.
I have just appointed agents to market my 2 bed flat in West Drayton. Conveyancing has not commenced, but I have recently had a quarterly service charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?
The sensible thing to do is discharge the invoice as usual given that all ground rent and service payments should be apportioned on completion, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the purchaser for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.
Having spent months of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in West Drayton. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?
Where there is a absentee landlord or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the LVT to arrive at the price.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a West Drayton property is 164 Nestles Avenue in October 2013. The tribunal agreed with the proposed price of £20,158 for the freehold and determined that that sum is the amount to be paid into court This case affected 2 flats. The number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 69 years.