My wife and I are refinancing our penthouse in Knightsbridge with Skipton. We have a son 19 who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have a couple of questions (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 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 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.
Is it necessary to take out insurance to address the risk of chancel repairs when acquiring a residence in Knightsbridge?
Unless a previous acquisition of the property completed after 12 October 2013 you could take it that lawyers carrying out conveyancing in Knightsbridge to continue to recommend a chancel search and or chancel repair liability policy.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up during conveyancing in Knightsbridge?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Knightsbridge. 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 am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £305k and identified one near me in Knightsbridge I like with open areas and railway links in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 61 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Knightsbridge suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?
Should you need a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term may be problematic. Reduce the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the property for a minimum of 2 years you could request that they 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 speak to your conveyancing lawyer about this matter.
Am I better off to use a Knightsbridge conveyancing solicitor who is local to the property I am buying? I have an old university friend who can conduct the legal formalities however his firm is located a couple of hundredmiles away.
The benefit of a high street Knightsbridge conveyancing firm is that you can pop in to sign paperwork, present your ID and apply pressure on them where appropriate. They will also have local intelligence which is a bonus. However it's more important to get someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If if people you trust instructed your friend and the majority were content that must outweigh using an unknown Knightsbridge conveyancing solicitor just because they are round the corner.
I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Knightsbridge where we see a few leasehold sales derailed due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Knightsbridge conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.
Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the buyer.
Following months of dialogue we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Knightsbridge. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?
if there is a absentee landlord or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to assess the sum to be paid.
An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Knightsbridge residence is Flat 3 47 Cadogan Square in December 2010. the Tribunal determined that the premium payable to the landord by the leaseholder for the lease extension was £732,935 This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired term as at the valuation date was 13.33 years.