My partner and I intend to remortgage our apartment in Southville with RBS. We have a son 18 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults 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 apartment is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the RBS conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 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 RBS 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 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.
Do all mortgage companies provide you with an approved list of Southville conveyancing solicitors? How do you know who is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel?
Southville conveyancing firms themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Bank of Ireland directly.
I am purchasing a 3 bedroom semi in Southville. We would like to convert the garage to an office at the property.Will legal investigations on the property involve checks to see if these alterations are prohibited?
Your property lawyer will check the registered title as conveyancing in Southville can on occasion reveal restrictions in the title documents which restrict categories of alterations or need the consent of another owner. Some works need local authority planning permissions and approval in compliance with building regulations. Many areas are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which frequently prevent or affect extensions. You should check these things with a surveyor ahead of any purchase.
We previously chose solicitors located in Southville on the Nationwide solicitor approved list. They are now charging me a further sum for dealing with the Nationwide mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee specified by Nationwide?
Unfortunately, as long as it is in their Terms of Engagement or estimate then yes your solicitor may charge a fee for this. This fee is not dictated by Nationwide but by your Southville solicitor. Numerous firms on the Nationwide panel will charge an ‘acting for lender’ fee but many practices incorporate it on their overall fee.
I recently had an offer agreed on an apartment in Southville. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an advanced payment of £175. Soon after, the conveyancing practitioner called me to say that they were not on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Virgin Money panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
How does conveyancing in Southville differ for new build properties?
Most buyers of new build residence in Southville approach us having been asked by the housebuilder to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the property is ready to move into. This is because builders in Southville typically buy the land, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancing solicitors as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are accustomed to new build conveyancing in Southville or who has acted in the same development.
Should I be concerned that estate agents that I am dealing with are encouraging me to use an online conveyancing firm rather than a High Street Southville conveyancing firm?
As is the case with many professional services, often recommendations from family and friends can be most helpful. Yet there are many parties with a keen interest in a conveyancing matter; estate agents, mortgage brokers and lenders may put forward solicitors to choose. Sometimes the solicitors might be known to one of the organisations as one of the best in their field, but occasionally there exists a commercial relationship behind the endorsement. You are free to select your own conveyancer. You need to be aware that most mortgage providers have an approved list of lawyers you are obliged to use for the mortgage aspect of your transaction.
The lawyers conducting our conveyancing in Southville has forwarded papers to review that indicate that the property is unregistered with epitome documents. How can it be that the property not currently recorded at the Land Registry?
It is unusual for property in Southville to be unregistered. An 'epitome' is basically a dossier of photocopies of documents affecting an unregistered title. Plenty of Southville conveyancing lawyers should be capable of dealing with this type of conveyancing but in the event that uncertainty prevails the conventional recommendation nowadays is for the seller to register the title first and thereafter deal with the disposal - this this chain of events will result in a significant delay.