My husband and I are refinancing our maisonette in Mirfield with Principality. We have a son approaching twenty 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. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this document specific to the Principality conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we bought 4 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your Principality 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 Principality. This is solely used to protect Principality 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 Principality 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 Mirfield is more expensive?

Mirfield leasehold conveyancing transactions usually involve additional investigations than freeholds including investigating the Lease, liaising with the Landlord such as serving appropriate 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.

Do I choose a Licenced Conveyancer or Solicitor for conveyancing in Mirfield?

There are many recorded licenced Conveyancers in Mirfield and Solicitor practices in Mirfield who can help with your conveyancing It is important to make clear that both are regulated professionals specialising in the legal aspects of transferring property. Both can conduct other property legal work such as remortgage conveyancing, enfranchisement and transfer of equity conveyancing.

Forgive me if this question is silly but I am unseasoned as a 1st time buyer of a ground floor flat in Mirfield. Do I receive the keys to the house on completion from my lawyer? If so, I will appoint a High Street conveyancing solicitor in Mirfield?

There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Conveyancing lawyers for you will electronically transfer the completion advance to the seller's lawyers, and shortly after the monies have arrived, you will be able to collect the keys from the Estate Agents and start moving into the property. This tends to happen between 1 and 3pm.

My offer was accepted on an apartment in Mirfield on 18/9/2024, valuation was booked five days after, received a clean bill of health. Solicitor appointed, so the only thing outstanding was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Kent Reliance and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. Are Kent Reliance entitled to hold back the Mortgage pending the lawyer being on the approved list?

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 Kent Reliance to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.

Is it best to use a Mirfield conveyancing lawyer who is local to the property I am purchasing? I have an old university friend who can conduct the legal formalities however her office is 400miles drive away.

The primary upside of using a high street Mirfield conveyancing practice is that you can pop in to sign paperwork, hand in your identification documents and apply pressure on them if necessary. They will also have local insight which is a bonus. That being said it's more important to get someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If you know people who instructed your friend and they were content that should outweigh using an unknown Mirfield conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being based in the area.

I have just started marketing my basement apartment in Mirfield. Conveyancing is yet to be initiated, but I have just had a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

The sensible thing to do is clear the service charge as usual given that all ground rent and maintenance invoices will be allotted as part of the financial calculations for completion monies, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I acquired a garden flat in Mirfield, conveyancing having been completed half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Corresponding flats in Mirfield with an extended lease are worth £211,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 invoiced annually. The lease runs out on 21st October 2091

You have 67 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £10,500 and £12,000 as well as costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on 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 additional concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.