Buying & Selling - Information for Conveyancers

• All houses on St Mary’s Island are subject to an estate rentcharge created under the Rentcharges Act 1997.
• The registered title of the house contains a Land Registry restriction so that that no disposition can be registered without production of a Certificate of Compliance from the Rentcharge Owner. The requirements for obtaining a Certificate of Compliance are set out below.
• On a sale, the Buyer has to enter into a Deed of Covenant with the Rentcharge Owner.
• The Rentcharge Owner in almost all circumstances will be Chatham Maritime Trust. The Rentcharge Owner in the original document may be English Partnerships (EP, also known as the Urban Regeneration Agency), or South East England Development Agency (SEEDA). EP / SEEDA were the landowners at the time of first sale, but will have assigned the Rentcharge Ownership to Chatham Maritime Trust within a year or so of the first purchase. Relatively recent first sales may still have SEEDA as the legal Rentcharge Owner, but it is still Chatham Maritime Trust who will deal with the Certificate of Compliance (see below).
• The Rentcharge Deed may also specify that consent is needed from other parties – EP, SEEDA, and one of the original housebuilders (Countryside, Redrow, or Barratts). Chatham Maritime Trust holds agency consent arrangements on behalf of all these organisations, and can issue the necessary Certificate of Compliance on behalf of all parties.
• All applications should therefore be made to Chatham Maritime Trust. To send applications to any other organisation may incur delays.
• The prescribed form for the Deed of Covenant is attached to the original deed (in the case of a house, the transfer) that created the rentcharge. For convenience a pro forma (in slightly updated form) may be downloaded from this website.
• Please complete the new Deed of Covenant carefully. An incorrectly completed form will cause delay. 
• Please forward the completed and signed Deed of Covenant to Chatham Maritime Trust, along with the appropriate fee|. Cheques should be made out to Chatham Maritime Estate Ltd (the management company, a subsidiary of Chatham Maritime Trust).
• Chatham Maritime Trust will issue a Certificate of Compliance when a properly completed Deed of Covenant is received, and provided there are no rentcharge arrears or other significant breaches of covenant.
• Where the transaction is a disposition not involving a change of ownership (eg a re-mortgage) a Certificate of Compliance will still be required, but a new Deed of Covenant will not be required. A smaller fee| is payable.
• Enquiries prior to completion can be made to Chatham Maritime Trust. These will reveal whether there are rentcharge arrears, or any other obstacle to the issue of a Certificate of Compliance.
• The arrangements described above apply to houses. With flats or maisonettes the rentcharge is attached to the freehold of the block and no application to the Trust is necessary for the onward sale of a flat.
• Chatham Maritime Trust cannot offer any guidance on matters contained in individual leases of flats or maisonettes, and any enquiries on these (and on consents which may be required from the block freeholders) should be directed to the block freeholder or the management company for the block.