My wife and I are refinancing our apartment in Wolverton with Co-operative. 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, giving up any rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this document specific to the Co-operative conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we bought 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this compromise his entitlement 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 Co-operative. This is solely used to protect Co-operative 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 Co-operative 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 selling my house in Wolverton. Will my conveyancer need to be required to be on the Nationwide conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Nationwide 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 specifications fairly frequently at the moment.

Should our lawyer be raising questions concerning flooding during the conveyancing in Wolverton.

Flooding is a growing risk for conveyancers conducting conveyancing in Wolverton. There are those who buy a house in Wolverton, fully aware that at some time, it may be flooded. However, leaving to one side the physical destruction, where a property is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to obtain a mortgage, satisfactory building insurance, or dispose of the property. There are steps that can be taken as part of the conveyancing process to forewarn the buyer.

Lawyers are not best placed to give advice on flood risk, however there are a number of checks that may be initiated by the purchaser or on a buyer’s behalf which can figure out the risks in Wolverton. The standard information supplied to a purchaser’s conveyancer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) incorporates a usual question of the seller to discover whether the property has suffered from flooding. In the event that the premises has been flooded in past and is not disclosed by the vendor, then a buyer could commence a compensation claim stemming from an inaccurate reply. A buyer’s conveyancers may also order an environmental search. This will reveal if there is a recorded flood risk. If so, additional inquiries should be initiated.

I have todaybecome aware that Wolstenholmes have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Wolverton for a purchase of a freehold house 10 months ago. How can I establish that my home is registered correctly in the name of the former proprietor?

The easiest way to see if the premises is registered to you, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Wolverton conveyancing specialists.

Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I have offered on a fortnight ago in what should have been a quick, no chain conveyancing. Wolverton is where the house is located. Is there any guidance you can give?

Flying freeholds in Wolverton are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Wolverton you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Wolverton may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.