My fiance and I intend to remortgage our apartment in Hedge End and Botley with Bank of Ireland. 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 reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form 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 Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his rights to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your Bank of Ireland 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 Bank of Ireland. This is solely used to protect Bank of Ireland 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 Bank of Ireland 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.

A relative suggested that if I am purchasing in Hedge End and Botley I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

A search of this type is usually quoted for as part of the standard Hedge End and Botley conveyancing searches. It is a large report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about Hedge End and Botley around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Hedge End and Botley Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Hedge End and Botley Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Hedge End and Botley.

Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up as part of conveyancing in Hedge End and Botley?

Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Hedge End and Botley. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’

I'm purchasing my first flat in Hedge End and Botley benefiting from help to buy. The builders would not budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The house builders rep told me not disclose to my lawyer about this deal as it could affect my mortgage with the lender. Should I keep quiet?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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.

A conveyancing company dealt with my conveyancing in Hedge End and Botley 8 years past having retained my title documents but has since been shut down – What can I do to retreive these?

Deeds, as such, are no longer appropriate for most properties in Hedge End and Botley are registered electronically at Land Registry. If you need to show ownership or are disposing of or refinancing your property lawyer can obtain up to date copies of the register from the Land Registry in any case.

If you feel there may be other documents or you have any other queries please e-mail your request with details of the transaction and documents you need to filerequest@clc-uk.org. The CLC will let you know what information they have and any additional information they may need before they are in a position to identify and send the documents to you. Following an intervention it may take some time for the CLC to access archived files and documents, but your request will be actioned as quickly as possible.