My fiance and I changing mortgage lender for our penthouse in North West London with TSB. We have a son approaching twenty who lives with us. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the flat is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the TSB conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish his rights to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your TSB 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 TSB. This is solely used to protect TSB 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 TSB 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 North West London is more expensive?

North West London leasehold conveyancing transactions usually involve additional investigations than freeholds including investigating the Lease, liaising with the Landlord such as serving applicable 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.

This question may be naive but I am wet behind the ears as FTB of a garden flat in North West London. Do I collect the keys to the house on the completion date from my conveyancer? If so, I will use a local conveyancing solicitor in North West London?

There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Your solicitors will electronically transfer the purchase money to the vendor’s solicitors, and once they have received this, you will be able to collect the keys from the selling Agents and move into your new home. Usually this happens between 1 and 3pm.

We are aiming to move house in March. Should my conveyancing solicitor update the removal company on the day of completion. On a separate note, can you recommend a removal company in North West London. Conveyancing firm was organised before I stumbled across this page.

On the afternoon of completion you can collect the house keys from the selling agent but this can only occur once the vendors conveyancers advise the agent that they have the completion monies and the keys can be handed over. Subsequently you should tell the removal company that you are ready to move in. We are not in a position to recommend a particular removal company but can assist you in choosing a conveyancing in North West London or a legal practice with expertise in conveyancing in North West London.

We previously chose conveyancers locally in North West London on the TSB solicitor panel. They are now charging me a supplemental amount for handling the TSB mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee set by TSB?

Unfortunately, as long as it is in their Terms and Conditions or estimate then yes your solicitor is entitled to charge a fee for this. The fee is not set by TSB but by your North West London lawyer. Numerous firms on the TSB panel will quote an ‘acting for lender’ fee and others do not.

I require fast conveyancing in North West London as I am faced with pressure to sign on the dotted line inside 3 weeks. Thankfully I do not require a mortgage. Can I escape the need for conveyancing searches to save fees and time?

As you are not obtaining a mortgage you are at liberty not to do searches although no conveyancer would suggest that you don't. With lots of history conveyancing in North West London the following are examples of issues that can show up and therefore affect market value: Refused Planning Applications, Overdue Charges, Outstanding Grants, Road Schemes,...

I am employed by a busy estate agent office in North West London where we see a number of leasehold sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local North West London conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the purchaser.

North West London Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should ask before buying

What prohibitions are there in the North West London Lease? If a North West London lease has less than 80 years it will have adverse implications on the marketability of the apartment. Check with your lender that they are happy with remaining years on the lease. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely require a lease extension sooner rather than later and it is worth discovering what this would cost. Remember, in most cases you would be required to have been the owner of the residence for 24 months in order to be legally able to carry out a lease extension. The prefered form of lease structure is a share of the freehold. In this scenario the lessees have control and even though a managing agent is usually retained where the building is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants.