My wife and I are refinancing our maisonette in New Covent Garden with Bank of Ireland. We have a son 18 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is forfeited by the lender. I have two concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this compromise 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 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.

Finally the sale completed on my house in New Covent Garden last August but our buyer keeps e-mailing daily complaining that his lawyer needs to hear from mysolicitor. What are the post completion sale legalities following completion?

After completion of your house sale your solicitor is duty bound to forward the transfer deeds and all of the paperwork to the buyer’s conveyancer. Depending on the transaction, your conveyancer should also confirm that the mortgage has been repaid to the buyers lawyers. There are no post completion formalities just for conveyancing in New Covent Garden.

I am assisting my mother sell her house in New Covent Garden. Does the solicitor order an energy assessment or should I organise this?

After the demise of Home Information Packs, EPC’s was left as a mandatory component of selling a property. An energy assessment needs to be to hand before the property is marketed. This is not as aspect of the sale process that lawyers normally organise. Where you are instructing a New Covent Garden conveyancing practitioner they may help arrange energy assessments given their relationships with reputable New Covent Garden energy assessors

I'm spending time viewing flats in New Covent Garden and I am about to put in an offer. Is it too early to have a solicitor in place? I am planning to take a home loan with Yorkshire BS.

It would be wise to start your search sooner rather than later. Once you decide who you want to use and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their contact information on to the selling agent. Given that you are obtaining a mortgage with Yorkshire BS, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.

Completion of my purchase has taken place for my property in New Covent Garden. Conveyancing was satisfactory but I would like to complain about the lender. How does one go about formally complaining?

All banks and building societies have complaints procedures. Your first point of contact should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Care Team at head office. We understand that complaints to a lender are sorted out effectively and efficiently. However if you are not satisfied that the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR with full details of your complaint.

Planning to complete next month on a garden flat in New Covent Garden. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they are sending me a report next week. What should I be looking out for?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in New Covent Garden should include some of the following:

specifics of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the lessee, head lessor, landlord Who has the liability to repair and maintain the block. It is important for you to know which party is liable for the repair and maintenance of all parts of the block and estate What options are available to the landlord where you are in breach of your lease terms? Repair and maintenance of the property Defining your rights in respect of common areas in the building.E.G., does the lease provide for a right of way over an accessway or hallways?

Leasehold Conveyancing in New Covent Garden - Examples of Questions you should consider before buying

How much is the ground rent and service charge? Where a New Covent Garden lease has fewer than 80 years it will impact the marketability of the flat. Check with your mortgage company that they are willing to to proceed given the lease term. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely need a lease extension sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of how much this will be. For most New Covent Gardenlease extensions you would need to own the property for 24 months in order to be entitled to extend the lease. Generally speaking the cost for major works tend not to be included within maintenance charges, although there some managing agents in New Covent Garden require leaseholders to pay into a reserve fund and this is used to offset against major repairs or maintenance.

Do I cancel my mortgage payments with Principality once a completion date for my sale in New Covent Garden has been agreed?

You would be well advised to maintain paying any mortgage sums to Principality pending the mortgage being paid off on completion as part of your New Covent Garden conveyancing.