My fiance and I are refinancing our penthouse in Partington with RBS. We have a son approaching twenty 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, giving up any rights in the event that the apartment is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this document specific to the RBS conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we bought 5 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right 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 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.
Can you clarify what the consequences are if my lawyer’s firm is suspended from the Barclays Solicitor panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in Partington?
The first thing to point out is that, this is very unlikely to happen. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit for a fee.
Do I need to pay for insurance to address the risk of chancel repairs when buying a property in Partington?
Unless a previous acquisition of the premises took place post 12 October 2013 you could take it that conveyancing practitioners conducting conveyancing in Partington to continue to suggest a chancel search and or chancel repair liability insurance.
The deeds to my property are lost. The conveyancers who did the conveyancing in Partington 4 years ago have long since closed. What are my options?
Gone are the days when you need to hold title official documentation to prove you are the registered proprietor of land or premises, as the Land Registry have everything they need in a digital format.
I have been advised by numerous estate agents in Partington to select a solicitor on your site. Is there a financial inducement for Estate Agents to promote your services over another?
We refuse to give any referral fee for directing people to this site. We found it would be just too difficult a fee as home movers will think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not receiving any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.