My fiance and I changing mortgage lender for our flat in St Paul's Cray with Leeds Building Society. 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 lives in the flat. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Leeds Building Society 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 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 Leeds Building Society. This is solely used to protect Leeds Building Society 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 Leeds Building Society 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.
Can your site be used to locate a Conveyancing solicitor in St Paul's Cray even where I’m not purchasing or selling a house, for example if I want to acquire a shop in St Paul's Cray with a loan from Norwich and Peterborough Building Society?
Our comparison service is predominantly there to select residential conveyancing solicitors in St Paul's Cray but we have listed towards the bottom of this page a few St Paul's Cray commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to speak with the company directly to establish if they are also authorised to represent Norwich and Peterborough Building Society
We expect to receive a AIP from Clydesdale this week so we know how much we could potentially offer as otherwise we only have online calculators to go by (which aren't taking into account credit checks etc). Do Clydesdale recommend any St Paul's Cray solicitors on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel, or is it better to find our own lawyer?
You will need to appoint St Paul's Cray solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and Clydesdale through the process.
After shopping around on the internet I have found a St Paul's Cray property lawyer having made sure that they are on the TSB conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?
TSB will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually TSB will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your property lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your St Paul's Cray postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with TSB, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in St Paul's Cray.
My offer on a property in St Paul's Cray has been agreed to, the sellers do nevertheless have an associated purchase. The owners have placed an offer on a flat, however it’s not yet agreed to, and have viewings of other apartments in the pipeline. I have chosen a high street conveyancing solicitor in St Paul's Cray. What should be my next step? At what point do I apply for the mortgage with Yorkshire BS?
It is usual to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to incur costs too early (mortgage application is in the region of £1k, then valuation, St Paul's Cray conveyancing search costs, etc). The first thing to do is check that your conveyancer is on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel. Regarding the next stages this very much dictated by the circumstances of your case, motivation for this property and on the state of the market. In a buoyant market some purchasers would apply for the mortgage with Yorkshire BS and pay for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they pay their conveyancer to press on with the conveyancing in St Paul's Cray.
Due to the advice of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a house in St Paul's Cray ahead of retaining conveyancers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold aspect to the house. The surveyor advised that some lenders tend not issue a mortgage on a flying freehold house.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Santander has different instructions from Nationwide. If you call us we can look into this further via the appropriate bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in St Paul's Cray. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in St Paul's Cray to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
I work for a long established estate agency in St Paul's Cray where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local St Paul's Cray conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the buyer?
Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.
An alternative approach is 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 purchaser.
I am the proprietor of a basement flat in St Paul's Cray. In the absence of agreement between myself and the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the sum payable for the purchase of the freehold?
Most certainly. We are happy to put you in touch with a St Paul's Cray conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a St Paul's Cray property is 1 Southlands Court Southlands Road in September 2013. The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal determined that the premium to be paid by the tenant on the grant of a new lease, in accordance with section 56 and Schedule 13 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 was £30,541 This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired lease term was 50.57 years.
There are a lot of properties in St Paul's Cray on private lanes. I am buying one such house. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of purchasing a house on a privately owned road?
St Paul's Cray conveyancing practices will be well versed in dealing propertieson private. The solicitor will investigate title to find any rights or liabilities. It is possible that there is a management company (wholly owned by residents) that proprietors make annual payments for the upkeep of the road. Where there is one, the road should be maintained and appear nicer than publicly maintained.