My fiance and I are refinancing our maisonette in Ramsgate with Clydesdale. We have a son 19 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 repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Clydesdale conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 4 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right 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 Clydesdale. This is solely used to protect Clydesdale 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 Clydesdale 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.

Completed the sale of my flat in Ramsgate last March but the buyer keeps Skype messaging every few hours complaining that their conveyancer is waiting to hear from mylawyer. What are the post completion sale legalities following completion?

Following your disposal your lawyer is committed to deliver the transfer deeds and all supplemental paperwork to the buyer’s solicitors. If applicable, your conveyancer should also evidence that the home loan has been redeemed to the purchasers solicitors. There is unlikely to be post completion tasks peculiar conveyancing in Ramsgate.

I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and found one close by in Ramsgate I like with a park and railway links in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 61 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 buying a lease with such few years left?

Should you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease will likely be problematic. Reduce the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current owner has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you could request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor regarding this.

I was advised by numerous estate agents in Ramsgate to locate a solicitor on your site. What’s the financial upside for Estate Agents to market your services over a competitor’s?

We don’t offer any commission for directing people in our direction. We found it would be just too difficult to pay a commission because a client could think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I receiving any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.

Harry (my fiance) and I may need to sub-let our Ramsgate basement flat temporarily due to a new job. We used a Ramsgate conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have closed and we did not think at the time seek any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Your lease dictates the relationship between the landlord and you the flat owner; in particular, it will set out if subletting is not allowed, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. The majority of leases in Ramsgate do not prevent strict prohibition on subletting – such a clause would undoubtedly devalue the property. Instead, there is usually simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a copy of the sublease.

Ramsgate Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should consider before buying

Generally speaking the outlay for major works are not built into the service charges, albeit that some managing agents in Ramsgate require tenants to pay into a reserve fund and this is used to offset against major works. Who takes responsibility for maintaining and repairing the block? How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their service charge payments?