My fiance and I intend to remortgage our flat in St John's Wood with Virgin Money. We have a son approaching twenty who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have two concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Virgin Money conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 4 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish his entitlement to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Virgin Money 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 Virgin Money. This is solely used to protect Virgin Money 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 Virgin Money 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.
As a FTB what is the most important advice you can impart concerning purchase conveyancing in St John's Wood?
Not many law firms shout this from the rooftops but conveyancing in St John's Wood or throughout England and Wales is often a confrontational experience. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there is lots of opportunity for friction between you and others involved in the legal transfer of property. E.g., the vendor, property agent and even potentially a mortgage company. Choosing a law firm for your conveyancing in St John's Wood should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY party in the legal process whose interest is to protect your best interests and to protect you.
There is a definite creep of a "blame" culture- someone has to be at fault for the process taking so long. You your first instinct should be to trust your lawyer ahead of all other players when it comes to the legal transfer of property.
I am looking to buy a property and require a conveyancing solicitor in St John's Wood who is on the HSBC Bank approved. Could you point me in the right direction as regards a firm?
Our service is limited to being a directory service for firms who wish to listed as being on the approved conveyancing panel for HSBC Bank in certain locations such as St John's Wood. We dont recommend any particular firm.
Will my solicitor be making enquiries about flooding as part of the conveyancing in St John's Wood.
Flooding is a growing risk for lawyers specialising in conveyancing in St John's Wood. Plenty of people will buy a property in St John's Wood, completely expectant that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, if a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, suitable insurance cover, or sell the property. There are steps that can be taken as part of the conveyancing process to forewarn the buyer.
Solicitors are not qualified to give advice on flood risk, however there are a numerous searches that may be undertaken by the purchaser or by their lawyers which will give them a better understanding of the risks in St John's Wood. The conventional set of completed inquiry forms given to a buyer’s conveyancer (where the Conveyancing Protocol is adopted) contains a usual inquiry of the owner to determine whether the property has ever been flooded. If flooding has previously occurred which is not revealed by the vendor, then a purchaser may issue a claim for damages resulting from an incorrect reply. A purchaser’s solicitors should also order an enviro report. This will higlight whether there is a recorded flood risk. If so, additional inquiries will need to be initiated.
I purchased a semi-detached Edwardian house in St John's Wood. Conveyancing practitioner acted for me and Britannia. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw two entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold under the exact same property. Is it worth asking Britannia to clarify?
You need to assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in St John's Wood and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with purchasers. You can also question the position with the conveyancing practitioner who conducted the purchase.
I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £195,000 and found one round the corner in St John's Wood I like with amenity areas and station nearby, however it only has 51 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in St John's Wood suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a lease with such few years left?
If you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term may be problematic. Reduce the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you can ask them to start the process of the extension and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer about this matter.