My husband and I intend to remortgage our maisonette in Highworth with Virgin Money. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose 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 apartment is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this document specific to the Virgin Money conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish 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 Virgin Money. This is solely used to protect Virgin Money 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 Virgin Money 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.

I am thinking of mortgaging my property in Highworth, does my lawyer need to be on the Bank of Ireland Solicitor panel?

In theory, you could use a solicitor that is not on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel, but Bank of Ireland would require one of their panel solicitors to be instructed to act in their interests, and you'd have to pay for this - so most people instruct a panel solicitor. It's also easier, as otherwise you'd have to deal with two solicitors for the same conveyancing matter.

My wife and I own a terraced Victorian property in Highworth. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and Skipton Building Society. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw two entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold with the exact same address. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?

You need to review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Highworth and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also question the situation with the conveyancing lawyer who conducted the work.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Highworth what are the most frequent lease defects?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Highworth. All leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain clauses are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the property

You may encounter a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. National Westminster Bank, Chelsea Building Society, and Bank of Ireland all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.

I bought a 2 bed flat in Highworth, conveyancing having been completed 6 years ago. How much will my lease extension cost? Comparable properties in Highworth with a long lease are worth £222,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 yearly. The lease runs out on 21st October 2094

With just 70 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as legals.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information without first getting professional advice.

My 20yr old son is just in the process of moving home, he had his mortgage in principle. When the offer was accepted on flat we telephoned the mortgage company to issue the formal offer. I was shocked to hear that mortgage lenders do not accept all property lawyer, they must be on their panel, is this correct?

Banks normally restrict either the type or the number of conveyancing solicitors on their panel. Typical examples of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that banks have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any Highworth lawyer on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Probably not.