My partner and I swapping mortgage lender for our maisonette in Melbourne with Skipton. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose 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 two questions (1) Is this form unique to the Skipton conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 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 Skipton. This is solely used to protect Skipton 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 Skipton 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.

Forgive me if this question is silly but I am wet behind the ears as FTB of a ground floor flat in Melbourne. Do I pick up the keys to the premises on the completion date from my solicitor? If this is the case, I will find a local conveyancing solicitor in Melbourne?

On the day of completion you will not be required to go to the conveyancers office in Melbourne. Conveyancing lawyers for you will arrange to send the completion advance to the vendor’s solicitors, and shortly after the monies have arrived, you should be called to pick up the keys from the selling Agents and start moving into the property. This tends to happen between 1 and 3pm.

When it comes to mortgage companies such as Co-operative, do Melbourne conveyancing practitioners face an annual charge to be on the conveyancing panel?

We are not aware of any bank fees to be on their list of approved firms, although some do charge an administration fee to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel application.

We have agreed to purchase a house in Melbourne. A rare aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. Solicitors conducting should look into this right? Will my lender Santander be concerned?

Given that you are obtaining a mortgage with Santander your lawyer must comply with the formal requirements set out in Part two of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Santander. The CML Handbook stipulates minimum provisions for solar panel roof-space leases, and conveyancers are required to report to Santander where a lease fails to comply with these conditions. The provisions relate to the installation of panels on properties nationwide and is not limited to Melbourne.

Me and my brother purchased a semi-detached Georgian house in Melbourne. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and Bank of Ireland. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold with the exact same property. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?

You need to read the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Melbourne and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also check the situation with the conveyancing practitioner who conducted the purchase.

I'm buying a new build house in Melbourne with the aid of help to buy. The developers would not move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The property agent advised me not reveal to my solicitor about the side-deal as it will adversely affect my mortgage with the lender. Is this normal?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.

In my capacity as executor for the estate of my father I am disposing of a residence in Newport but I am based in Melbourne. My lawyer (based 235 kilometers from mehas requested that I execute a statutory declaration prior to completion. Can you recommend a conveyancing practitioner in Melbourne to attest this legal document for me?

Technically speaking you are not likely to need to have the documents witnessed by a conveyancing solicitor. Normally any notary public or qualified solicitor will be fine regardless of whether they are Melbourne based