My fiance and I intend to remortgage our penthouse in Ramsgate with Yorkshire BS. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify 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, giving up any rights in the event that the flat is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this document specific to the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 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 Yorkshire BS 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 Yorkshire BS. This is solely used to protect Yorkshire BS 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 Yorkshire BS 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.

We note that you have a post code search directory listing firms on the Aldermore conveyancing panel. Do firms pay you a referral fee if I appoint them for our conveyancing in Ramsgate?

We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the Aldermore conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint for your conveyancing in Ramsgate.

How does conveyancing in Ramsgate differ for newly converted properties?

Most buyers of new build premises in Ramsgate contact us having been asked by the developer to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the premises is constructed. This is because house builders in Ramsgate usually buy the real estate, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancing solicitors as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are accustomed to new build conveyancing in Ramsgate or who has acted in the same development.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £305k and identified one near me in Ramsgate I like with open areas and transport links nearby, however it's only got 52 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Ramsgate in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a lease with such few years left?

Should you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be problematic. Reduce the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you could ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer about this.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my ground floor flat in Ramsgate. Conveyancing is yet to be initiated, however I have recently had a yearly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should pay the invoice as you normally would as all ground rent and service payments should be apportioned 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 management companies 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Ramsgate - A selection of Queries Prior to buying

Who are the managing agents? How long is the Lease? If a Ramsgate lease has fewer than 80 years it will affect the value of the flat. Check with your bank that they are happy with remaining years on the lease. A short lease means that you will almost definitely require a lease extension sooner rather than later and it is worth discovering how much this would cost. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the premises for two years in order to be entitled to carry out a lease extension.