My wife and I are purchasing a 2 bedroom apartment in Harold Hill with a mortgage. We would like to retain our Harold Hill lawyer, however the mortgage company advise he's not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the lender panel solicitors or retain our Harold Hill and pay for one of their panel ones to act for them. We consider that this is inequitable; can we not insist that the lender use our Harold Hill ?
No, not really. The mortgage offered to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the lender’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose 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 Harold Hill conveyancing lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.
My fiance and I intend to remortgage our maisonette in Harold Hill with . We have a son 19 who lives with us. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the apartment is repossessed. I have two concerns (1) Is this document specific to the conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish 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 . This is solely used to protect 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 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 have a semi-detached Edwardian house in Harold Hill. Conveyancing practitioner acted for me and . I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are a couple of entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold with the exact same property. Is it worth asking to clarify?
You should review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Harold Hill and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also check the position with your conveyancing practitioner who conducted the conveyancing.
I have been on the look out for a ground for flat up to £305k and found one close by in Harold Hill I like with a park and station in the vicinity, however it only has 51 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Harold Hill for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a lease with such few years left?
If you need a home loan the shortness of the lease may be an issue. 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 2 years you can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer regarding this.
I'm converting the mortgage on my primary home to a BTL loan with and I will use the rest of the raised equity as a down payment on another house. The neighborhood we are interested in is Harold Hill. Will your conveyancers be able to act for both sets of banks and link together the two deals?
Make use of our comparison tool on this site to be sure that the lawyers are on the relevant lender panels. On the basis that they are the conveyancer should be able to connect the two deals but you should talk with you solicitor and make apparent your expectations and needs.