My fiance and I swapping mortgage lender for our maisonette in Birmingham with Barclays. We have a son 18 who lives with us. 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 apartment is repossessed. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this form unique to the Barclays conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we bought 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 Barclays 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 Barclays. This is solely used to protect Barclays 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 Barclays 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.
At what point will exchange of contracts occur in residential conveyancing in Birmingham and am I required to be at the lawyers branch?
Where you are in close proximity to one of the conveyancing solicitors in Birmingham you are welcome to come in to sign contracts. However, the law practices we work with provide a countrywide conveyancing service and provide just as detailed and professional a job for you when dealing with you by post or email. The signing of the purchase agreement is not the point of no return. A signed contract simply enables the solicitor to officially exchange at the appropriate time, which will usually be very shortly after signing. The exchange process is is usually a five minute process, although where a lengthy "chain" is involved, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Birmingham)to be in the office at the appropriate time.
I just bought a flat at auction in Birmingham. Conveyancing is required. What are my next steps?
Having legally bound yourself to purchase you will need to choose a conveyancing lawyer as a matter of priority as you will have a pending deadline in which to complete the purchase. All auction property will ordinarily have a bespoke auction pack. This will likely include the copy title deeds, local authority and drainage searches. In the case of leasehold property the legal pack may include a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and other conveyancing paperwork specific to a leasehold property. You must hand this to your appointed conveyancing solicitor as soon as possible. You also need to ensure that you have funds in place to complete the transaction on the set completion date.
We are getting a further advance on our home loan from Coventry BS as we want to conduct improvements to our property in Birmingham. Do we need to appoint a bricks and mortar Birmingham solicitor on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel to deal with the paperwork?
Coventry BS would not normally require a member of their conveyancing panel to deal with such a matter. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel.
I have paid off my mortgage with Coventry BS. I assume I don't need a Birmingham conveyancer on the Coventry BS panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your Coventry BS mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Coventry BS mortgage from the register. Coventry BS, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Coventry BS has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Coventry BS has instructed the Land Registry to do so
I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I put an offer in a fortnight ago in what was supposed to be a straight forward, chain free conveyancing. Birmingham is where the house is located. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Birmingham 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 Birmingham 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 Birmingham may decide 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 residence.
In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Birmingham what are the most frequent lease problems?
Leasehold conveyancing in Birmingham is not unique. All leases are drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain sections are erroneous. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:
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Insurance obligations Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall
You will have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Barclays , Coventry Building Society, and TSB all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, forcing the buyer to withdraw.
I own a 1st floor flat in Birmingham, conveyancing formalities finalised July 2008. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Corresponding flats in Birmingham with over 90 years remaining are worth £206,000. The ground rent is £45 invoiced every year. The lease finishes on 21st October 2092
With only 66 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to be between £12,400 and £14,200 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.
The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.
We are in the process of buying a property in Birmingham. Could the solicitor have our purchase price a secret from sites such as Rightmove. How could this be done?
The Land Registry by statute are obliged to note price sold information on a register of the title for residential properties countrywide including homes in Birmingham. The register of ownership is an open document, so HMLR would be breaking the law if they did not grant access to the register.
In essence you can make a request of HM Land Registry to hide the price paid entry however the response would be a No.