Conveyancing advice

happydommo

Hi. Looking for some advice regarding conveyancing.

Partner inherited her grandmothers house around 6 years ago jointly with her father. Following some rather dubious legal advice from the conveyancer at the time the property was registered in her fathers name although she is listed as a restriction in the title absolute section.

We live in the property, father has taken a mortgage on property to release his half of the equity.

Now in a position to purchase fathers share of the property outright (cash, no mortgage)

Cash changing hands would be around £71000, which will clear father's mortgage. Desired result being property transferred jointly to partner and myself.

To me it seems like the most straightforward purchase ever - we already live in the property, it's been in the family forever, its not like any surprises are going to pop up.


However the local conveyancer seems to be making it seem very complicated. Their latest suggestion is that the 'price' should be £142,000 which would take the form of £71,000 cash and then a 'gift' of £71000 from partners father, which means paying stamp duty...

All in it's looking at about £1500 in fees/duty. Seems very excessive...

What's stopping us (or what are the potential pitfalls) in just clearing the outstanding mortgage and then just completing a TR1/AP1 and the stamp duty form????

Richard_Webster

Why on earth fiddle around with £142K? OP pays £71K because he/they already own half the house and shouldn't pay any SDLT. When you fill in SDLT form you explain the position.

Even if there was a mortgage sensible mortgage lenders (e.g Nationwide) will recognise that because of the family situation you are buying it for what appears to be an undervalue - but isn't so they should be prepared to lend up to £71K and possibly more provided they are satisfied that it is worth £142K.

happydommo

Thanks for the response - Glad to see you also think that the £142K is crazy...

How about the conveyancing? In between family members is this something that can be tackled ourselves or should 2 lots of conveyancing solicitors really be involved?

G_M

The only reason a solicitor might need o be involved is because the father has an existing mortgage which needs to be paid off.

If there were no mortgages involved (either existing by seller, or new by buyer) then simply completing the relevant Land registry forms would suffice.

How are relations with the father? Trust? If good,

1) you could give father the £71K
2) father uses the £71K to pay off mortgage
3) lender removes the mortgage Charge from Title
4) you complete TR1/AP1 + ID1 and transfer Title to new names

If relations are bad, father could take the £71K, change his mind, and go on a round-the-world cruise whilst retaining Title to the property.....

Richard_Webster

You might want to use a solicitor to explain the legal stuff about the property and do searches so that you are not caught unawares with some nasty when you come to sell.