Me and my fiance are purchasing a 3 bedroom flat in Port Clarence with a mortgage. We wish to retain our Port Clarence solicitor, but the mortgage company says she’s not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the bank panel firms or continue with our Port Clarence as well as pay for one of their panel lawyers to act for them. This seems very unfair; are we not able to require that the mortgage company use our Port Clarence ?

Unfortunately,no. Your mortgage offer is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the bank’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your Port Clarence conveyancing lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.

My wife and I are refinancing our apartment in Port Clarence with . We have a son 19 who lives with us. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the flat is repossessed. I have two concerns (1) Is this document specific to the conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we bought 3 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his rights to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your 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 . This is solely used to protect 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 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 explain why leasehold purchase conveyancing in Port Clarence costs more?

Port Clarence leasehold conveyancing transactions usually involve additional investigations than freeholds including investigating the Lease, liaising with the Landlord such as serving applicable notices on the Landlord or managing agent, obtaining up-to-date service charge and management information, obtaining Landlord’s consents and reviewing management accounts and formation documents.

I opted to have a survey done on a property in Port Clarence ahead of appointing lawyers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold overhang to the property. Our surveyor advised that some banks may not grant a mortgage on this type of house.

It depends who your proposed lender is. Santander has different requirements for example to Nationwide. Should you wish to call us we can check with the relevant lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Port Clarence. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Port Clarence especially if they are acquainted with such properties in Port Clarence.

Harry (my fiance) and I may need to rent out our Port Clarence ground floor flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Port Clarence conveyancing firm in 2004 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Your lease governs the relationship between the landlord and you the leaseholder; in particular, it will say if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The rule is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. The majority of leases in Port Clarence do not prevent an absolute prevention of subletting – such a clause would undoubtedly devalue the property. Instead, there is usually a basic requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a duplicate of the tenancy agreement.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Port Clarence - A selection of Queries Prior to Purchasing

Where a Port Clarence lease has fewer than eighty years it will affect the marketability of the property. It is worth checking with your bank that they are willing to go ahead with the loan given the lease term. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely need a lease extension at some point and you need to have some idea of how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you would need to own the property for 24 months in order to be entitled to exercise a lease extension. Plenty Port Clarence leasehold properties will be liable to pay a service bill for maintenance of the building invoiced on behalf of the freeholder. Should you buy the property you will have to meet this amount, usually periodically accross the year. This may be anything from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a ground rent for you to pay annual, this is usually not a significant amount, say approximately £50-£100 but you should to enquire it because sometimes it could be prohibitively expensive. What is the the remaining lease term?