My husband and I intend to remortgage our flat in Sefton with RBS. We have a son 18 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 a couple of questions (1) Is this document specific to the RBS conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we bought 3 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his rights 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 RBS. This is solely used to protect RBS 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 RBS 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.
Will our lawyer be making enquiries regarding flooding as part of the conveyancing in Sefton.
Flooding is a growing risk for conveyancers conducting conveyancing in Sefton. There are those who purchase a property in Sefton, completely aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical destruction, where a property is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, satisfactory insurance cover, or sell the premises. Steps can be carried out during the course of a property purchase to forewarn the buyer.
Solicitors are not qualified to give advice on flood risk, but there are a various checks that can be undertaken by the purchaser or by their solicitors which can give them a better understanding of the risks in Sefton. The standard information sent to a purchaser’s lawyer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) incorporates a standard question of the seller to discover if the premises has suffered from flooding. If flooding has previously occurred and is not notified by the vendor, then a buyer may commence a legal claim for losses as a result of such an misleading response. A purchaser’s conveyancers should also order an environmental search. This should higlight if there is any known flood risk. If so, additional inquiries will need to be initiated.
Due to the encouragement of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a house in Sefton prior to retaining solicitors. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold element to the property. Our surveyor has said that some banks tend refuse to give a mortgage on this type of home.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Bank of Scotland has different requirements for example to Halifax. Should you wish to call us we can look into this further with the appropriate lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Sefton. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Sefton especially if they are familiar with such properties in Sefton.
I need to find a conveyancing solicitor for purchase conveyancing in Sefton. I happened to chance upon a site which looks to be the perfect answer If it is possible to get all formalities done via email that would be preferable. Do I need to be concerned? What are the potential pitfalls?
As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?
Last January I purchased a leasehold flat in Sefton. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before 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. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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).
Sefton Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries before Purchasing
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Does the lease have in excess of 85 years remaining? Plenty Sefton leasehold properties will have a service charge for maintenance of the block set on behalf of the freeholder. If you buy the apartment you will have to pay this charge, usually quarterly throughout the year. This may differ from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. There will also be a rentcharge to be met yearly, this is usually not a large sum, say around £25-£75 but you should to check it because sometimes it can be many hundreds of pounds. Are there any major works on the horizon that will increase the service charges?
My boyfriend is purchasing a basement flat in Sefton. He has received an estimate by the property lawyer recommended by the estate agents and it came to £1275 . It was ten years ago since I sold and bought a property and the bill was £450. Have costs really escalated to that extent?
We would recommend that you e-mail a few local Sefton conveyancing firms seeking estimates. It is advisable to base your choice not solely on cost, but on promptness and on how comprehensive the response is.