My wife and I are refinancing our penthouse in East Leake with Kent Reliance. 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. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this form unique to the Kent Reliance 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 Kent Reliance. This is solely used to protect Kent Reliance 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 Kent Reliance 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.

My flat in East Leake is up for sale and I have a buyer. Does the lawyer have to be on the Co-operative conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Co-operative conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their specifications fairly frequently currently.

What can a local search tell me concerning the property I am purchasing in East Leake?

East Leake conveyancing often starts with the ordering local authority searches directly from your local Authority or through a personal search organisations for instance Searches UK The local search is essential in every East Leake conveyancing purchase; as long as you don’t want any unpleasant surprises after you move into your new home. The search should provide data on, amongst other things, details on planning applications applicable to the property (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of 13 topic sections.

Just had an offer accepted on a new build apartment in East Leake. Conveyancing is daunting at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build legal work.

Set out below is a sample of a selection of leasehold new build questions that you may expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in East Leake

There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Please confirm the Lease plans are architect prepared. The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. Will control of the Management Company (if any) be handed over to purchasers on completion of the last sale or earlier? Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease.

My husband and I are selling a East Leake apartment we inherited seven years ago in 2009. I have over ten years conveyancing experience and, although retired, wish to do the legal work. The buyer's solicitor has informed me that their bank will not allow us to do our own conveyancing mandating that the funds to be transferred to a solicitor's bank account.

Lending instructions to conveyancers from all mainstream lenders state that If the vendor does not have legal representation the purchaser’s lawyers should check whether the lender needs to be told so that a decision can be reached as to whether or not they are prepared to move forward.