My wife and I are refinancing our apartment in Sawston with HSBC. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document 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 form unique to the HSBC conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 4 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this compromise 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 HSBC. This is solely used to protect HSBC 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 HSBC 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.
What is the first thing I need to know concerning purchase conveyancing in Sawston?
You may not hear this from too many lawyers but conveyancing in Sawston or throughout England and Wales is an adversarial experience. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there is an abundance of room for friction between you and others involved in the ownership transfer. E.g., the seller, property agent and on occasion a bank. Choosing a lawyer for your conveyancing in Sawston an important selection as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the SOLE person in the transaction whose role it is to look after your best interests and to keep you safe.
We are witnessing a worrying ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone must be at fault for the process being so protracted. You your first instinct should be to trust your solicitor ahead of the other players in the conveyancing process.
I bought my flat on 4 March and the transaction details are still not on the land registry website. Any reason for this? My conveyancing solicitor in Sawston said it should be recorded in a couple of weeks. Are transfers in Sawston uniquely lengthy to register?
As far as conveyancing in Sawston registration is no faster or slower than the rest of England and Wales. Rather than based on location, timescales can vary depending on the party submitting the application, whether it is in order and whether the Land registry communicate with any interested persons or bodies. At present in the region of three quarters of submission are fully dealt with within 12 days but occasionally there can be extensive delays. Registration occurs once the buyer has moved in to the property thus an expedited registration is not usually an essential issue but where there is a degree of urgency associated with the registration then you or your conveyancer could contact the land registry and explain the circumstances.
My husband and I are one month into a residential purchase having been referred to solicitors by the selling agent to perform conveyancing in Sawston. We are not happy. Could you help me find new conveyancers?
They would have to be really bad to suggest changing them. Has your mortgage offer been sent? If so you will need to advise them of the replacement solicitor and ensure the loan are re-issued. The solicitor ideally needs to be on the mortgage company approved list to avoid supplemental expenses and complications. That should be your starting point. The find a solicitor tool can assist you in finding a bank approved solicitor for your home move in Sawston
What advice can you give us when it comes to finding a Sawston conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?
If you are instructing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Sawston conveyancing practice) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We advise that you speak with two or three firms including non Sawston conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. The following questions might be useful:
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What volume of lease extensions have they conducted in Sawston in the last year? How familiar is the practice with lease extension legislation?
Sawston Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries Prior to Purchasing
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Is the freehold owned jointly by the leaseholders? Does the lease have onerous restrictions? You should be aware that where the lease has fewer than eighty years it will impact the marketability of the property. It is worth checking with your bank that they are content with the length of the lease. A short lease means that you will probably need a lease extension at some point and it is worth finding out what this will be. For most Sawstonlease extensions you would be be obliged to have owned the property for two years in order to be eligible to extend the lease.
We are soon to purchasing a house in Sawston. Conveyancing is not complete but we wish to have our transaction price a secret from the likes of Rightmove. Is this possible and how?
HM Land Registry by statute are bound to note price sold data on the official title for domestic properties nationwide including homes in Sawston. The Title Register is an open document, so HMLR would be breaching their statutory obligations excluded certain properties such as your one in Sawston.
You can ask the Land Registry to hide the amount paid entry however the response will be in the negative.