My wife and I are refinancing our apartment in Crowland with Skipton. We have a son approaching twenty who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the flat is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this document specific to the Skipton conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his rights to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Skipton 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 Skipton. This is solely used to protect Skipton 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 Skipton 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.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified during conveyancing in Crowland?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Crowland. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
I'm buying my first flat in Crowland with the aid of help to buy. The sellers would not budge the amount so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The estate agent told me not disclose to my solicitor about this extras as it would adversely affect my mortgage with the lender. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
I opted to have a survey completed on a property in Crowland before retaining lawyers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. Our surveyor advised that some banks tend refuse to give a mortgage on a flying freehold house.
It varies from the lender to lender. Santander has different requirements from Birmingham Midshires. If you call us we can investigate further via the relevant bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Crowland. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Crowland to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
I am hoping to put an offer on a small detached house that appears to be perfect, at a great price which is making it all the more appealing. I have since found out that the title is leasehold as opposed to freehold. I am assuming that there are issues buying a leasehold house in Crowland. Conveyancing advisers have not yet been appointed. Will my lawyers set out the implications of buying a leasehold house in Crowland ?
Most houses in Crowland are freehold rather than leasehold. This is one of the situations where having a local conveyancer used to dealing with such properties who can assist with the conveyancing process. It is clear that you are purchasing in Crowland in which case you should be shopping around for a Crowland conveyancing solicitor and be sure that they are used to transacting on leasehold houses. As a matter of priority you will need to check the unexpired lease term. As a leaseholder you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want to the property. The lease comes with conditions such as requiring the freeholder’spermission to carry out changes to the property. It may be necessary to pay a contribution towards the maintenance of the communal areas where the house is part of an estate. Your lawyer will report to you on the legal implications.
Leasehold Conveyancing in Crowland - Sample of Questions you should ask before buying
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Plenty Crowland leasehold properties will have a service bill for maintenance of the building set on behalf of the management company. Where you acquire the flat you will have to pay this charge, normally periodically throughout the year. This may differ from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. In all likelihood there will be a rentcharge to be met annual, this is usually not a large amount, say around £25-£75 but you should to check it because on occasion it can be many hundreds of pounds. Please note if it is fewer than 80 years it will have adverse implications on the marketability of the apartment. It is worth checking with your bank that they are happy with remaining years on the lease. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will most likely have to extend the lease at some point and it is worth finding out how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you would need to own the residence for two years in order to be eligible to carry out a lease extension. Are any of leasehold owners in dispute over their service charge payments?
Developers have suggested I use a conveyancer and I've received a quote from them. It's almost two hundred pounds cheaper than my preferred Crowland solicitor. Should I use them?
Developers often have panels of lawyers who expedite matters and who know the builder's paperwork and conveyancing practitioner. As many developers offer an incentive to choose a preferred property lawyer for this reason, any increased cost can be avoided and a developer will not put forward a conveyancing factory and run the risk of having the conveyancing stall when they demand an exchange inside a month. A counter-argument for not agreeing to use the suggested lawyer is that they may prove hesitant to 'push' your interests for fear of alienating the housebuilder. If you worry that this may be the situation you should stick with your high street Crowland property lawyer.