My husband and I swapping mortgage lender for our apartment in Greenhithe with Yorkshire BS. We have a son 18 who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this document specific to the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 3 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his rights 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 Yorkshire BS. This is solely used to protect Yorkshire BS 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 Yorkshire BS 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.
Is it the case that all Greenhithe solicitor firms on the Skipton conveyancing panel are overseen by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority?
As solicitors, in order to be on the Skipton approved list of solicitors they would need to be governed by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. Many banks do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such organisation would be governed by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.
I was told two weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed to by RBS. Is it usual for RBS to only issue the offer once my solicitor in Greenhithe is approved on their conveyancing panel? RBS have asked my solicitor to see a copy of their Professional Indemnity Insurance Schedule.
Mortgage companies tend not to not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for RBS to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the RBS conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
I have instructed a Greenhithe property lawyer having checked that they are on the Santander conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?
Santander will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Santander 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 solicitor 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 Greenhithe postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Santander, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Greenhithe.
I have todaydiscovered that Wolstenholmes have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Greenhithe for a purchase of a freehold house 9 months ago. How can I establish that the property is not still registered in the name of the previous owner?
The easiest method to see if the property is registered to you, 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 Greenhithe conveyancing specialists.
I decided to have a survey done on a house in Greenhithe in advance of retaining lawyers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold aspect to the house. My surveyor has said that some banks tend refuse to give a loan on such a home.
It varies from the lender to lender. Bank of Scotland has different instructions for example to Halifax. Should you wish to call us we can look into this further with the relevant bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Greenhithe. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.
I was recommended by numerous estate agents in Greenhithe to find a solicitor using your seach tool. Is there a financial advantage for Estate Agents to promote your site over another?
We refuse to offer any financial incentive for sending work to this site. We found it would be just too difficult a fee because a client could think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I receiving any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.