My wife and I intend to remortgage our maisonette in Westbury Park with Virgin Money. We have a son 19 who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Virgin Money conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 4 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his entitlement to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Virgin Money 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 Virgin Money. This is solely used to protect Virgin Money 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 Virgin Money 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 is leasehold purchase conveyancing in Westbury Park costs more?
The conveyancing costs on a leasehold premises in Westbury Park is frequently higher when contrasted to a freehold residence. This is because there is an amount of extra work required in dealing with the landlord and managing agents to obtain evidence about whether the rent and maintenance fee have been cleared and whether there are any major works due in the foreseeable future on repairs or maintenance of the block.
The Westbury Park conveyancing firm that I recently instructed on my purchase in Westbury Park have suddenly shut down. I chose them because I needed a lawyer on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel and my preferred Westbury Park lawyer was not. I cut them a cheque for £250 in advance. What should be my next steps?
If you have an estate agent involved then inform them straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to assist.
The deeds to our property can not be found. The conveyancers who dealt with the conveyancing in Westbury Park 4 years ago have long since closed. Will I be able to sell the house?
Assuming the title is registered the details of your ownership will be evidenced by the Land Registry under a Title Number. It is easy to carry out a search at the Land Registry, locate your property and order up to date copies of the Registered Entries for less than a fiver. If the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will also normally hold a certified copy of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be obtained for a small fee.
How does conveyancing in Westbury Park differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build or newly converted property in Westbury Park contact us having been asked by the housebuilder to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the premises is ready to move into. This is because builders in Westbury Park usually buy the land, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Westbury Park or who has acted in the same development.