My grandfather passed away 10 months ago and as sole heir and executor I was left the property in Kingsbury. The house had a relatively small loan remaining of approximately £4500. I want to have the title changed into my name whilst I re-mortgage to , pay off the mortgage. Is this allowed?

Given you intend to refinance then will insist on your using a conveyancer on the conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.

This question may be naive but I am new to the home buying as FTB of a ground floor flat in Kingsbury. Do I receive the keys to the house on completion from my lawyer? If this is the case, I will find a local conveyancing solicitor in Kingsbury?

There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Conveyancing lawyers for you will transfer the completion advance to the vendor’s solicitors, and once they have received this, you will be called to pick up the keys from the selling Agents and move into your new home. This tends to happen between 1 and 3pm.

Are all Kingsbury Conveyancing Quality Solicitors on the conveyancing list of approved solicitors?

It is true that some banks and building societies now use the accreditation scheme as the kick off point for Panel membership such as HSBC and Santander. CQS membership however gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for firms wishing to remain on their approved list of conveyancing solicitors.

My wife and I are in the throws of looking at flats in Kingsbury and I am now considering a potential offer. Should I already have a in place at this point? I intend to finance via a home loan with .

You should start requesting conveyancing estimates from solicitors ASAP. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and pass their details on to the EA. Given that you are getting a mortgage with , make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the conveyancing panel.

I have justfound out that Action Conveyancing have been shut down. They carried out my conveyancing in Kingsbury for a purchase of a freehold house 12 months ago. How can I be sure that the property is in my name in the name of the former proprietor?

The easiest way to see if the property is in your name, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Kingsbury conveyancing specialists.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £195,000 and found one close by in Kingsbury I like with open areas and transport links nearby, however it only has 61 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Kingsbury for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?

If you need a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term may be a potential deal breaker. Reduce the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you could request that they commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor about this.

My son is about to join the property ladder, the home loan was agreed last week in principle. When the seller agreed the offer on the house we rang the bank to go forward with his. We were shocked to hear that mortgage lenders do not accept all , they need to be on their approved list, is this right?

Banks ordinarily restrict either the type or the number of conveyancing practices on their panel. A common example of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that lenders have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any Kingsbury on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Probably not.