My partner and I intend to remortgage our maisonette in Linslade with Lloyds. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the flat is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this form unique to the Lloyds conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we bought 5 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 Lloyds 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 Lloyds. This is solely used to protect Lloyds 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 Lloyds 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.

My flat in Linslade is up for sale and I have a buyer. Will the solicitor have to be on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel in order to deal with redeeming my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their panel criteria fairly frequently in recent years.

We are selling our home in Linslade and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a possibility that the property was constructed land that was not decontaminated. A high street Linslade conveyancer would know this is not the case. It does beg the question why the buyers used a national conveyancing firm rather than a conveyancing solicitor in Linslade. We have lived in Linslade for 4 years we know of no issue. Do we get in touch with our local Authority to obtain clarification need.

It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing lawyer already. What do they say? You must enquire of your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out health insurance to cover that same illness)

We're FTB’s - agreed a price, yet the selling agent advised that the seller will only move forward if we instruct their preferred lawyers as they want an ‘expedited deal’. Our preferred option is to instruct a family solicitor with experience of conveyancing in Linslade

We suspect that the owner is not behind this demand. Should the seller want ‘a quick sale', turning down a genuine buyer is counter productive. Try to communicate with the sellers directly and make the point that (a)you are keen to buy (b)you are ready to progress, with mortgage lined up © you are chain free (d) you intend to proceed fast (e)but you intend to appoint your own,trusted Linslade conveyancing firm - not the ones that will earn their estate agent a kickback or achieve conveyancing figures demanded by corporate headquarters.

What happens where there is an issue with the searches conducted as part of our conveyancing in Linslade?

Ordinarily, most adverse entries arising from Linslade conveyancing search responses can be handled before completion or indemnity insurance may be taken. You should remember that although you intend on buying the property and might be willing to accept the search results, your lender may not, and when all said and done they have the final say.