My partner and I are refinancing our flat in Ashford with UBS. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 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 flat is forfeited by the lender. I have two questions (1) Is this form unique to the UBS conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 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 UBS 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 UBS. This is solely used to protect UBS 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 UBS 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.
Is there a search tool that I can utilise to investigate if the solicitor conducting my conveyancing in Ashford is on the mortgage lender’sconveyancing panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for Barclays thus spending £175.00 in further conveyancing invoice.
Feel free to take advantage of the find a lender approved solicitor tool on this page. Please choose the lender and type ‘Ashford’ or your location and you will see a number of lawyer offices in Ashford or nearest you.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I put an offer in two weeks back in what should have been a straight forward, chain free conveyancing. Ashford is the location of the property. Is there any guidance you can impart?
Flying freeholds in Ashford are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Ashford you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Ashford 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.
I need to instruct a conveyancing solicitor in Ashford for my house move. Can I see a solicitor's complaints history with the profession’s regulator?
Anyone can search for presented Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) decisions arising from inquisitions started on or after 1 January 2008. Visit Check a solicitor's record. To find information Pre 2008, or to check a solicitors record, ring 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 09.30 - 18.00 Tuesday. International callers, call +44 (0)121 329 6800. The regulator could monitor call for training purposes.
Last January I purchased a leasehold house in Ashford. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?
In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.
If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).
After years of negotiations we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Ashford. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?
in cases where there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to make a decision on the sum to be paid.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a Ashford premises is 147 Redford Close in June 2012. The Tribunal determined the lease extension premium to be at £4,200 This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired term as at the valuation date was 82.93 years.
Me and my partner have recently had an offer accepted on a property and had an appointment on Monday with the Post Office for the mortgage. They warned us that when it comes to selecting a solicitor that unless they are on their approved panel of lawyers then we will have to pay out an extra charge of about two hundred pounds. This is is due to the fact that they will then have to instruct a solicitor to act for them in addition to the one we appoint for ourselves and we will be on the hook for their invoice. I have asked the Post Office to send me with a list so I can seek estimates only from their approved solicitors but was told they dont have such a list to hand over. Is there a simple way of finding out who is on a lender panel?
You should ask the Post Office what their panel criteria is for a conveyancer.Thereafter ask the lawyer of your choice whether they meet the criteria and have they acted on loans for the Post Office in the past. Where the answer to those is yes, then just double check with the Post Office. Alternatively please use our search facility and we may be able to identify a conveyancer in Ashford on the approved list for the Post Office.