Question on groundrent...

Falconhoof

Falconhoof

Winger
I've lived in my house which I've a mortgage on for ten years and just received the first bill for groundrent. According to the letter it hasn't been paid for over thirty years. It's barely two quid a year.
I understand legally I should have to pay it but since it hasnt been paid for so long could I ignore it?
Would I be liable to the full 30+ years owed?
Could I buy the leasehold easily enough?
It's probably cost the solicitors more in office time and paperwork to post this out. Would it be an expensive process to buy the leasehold?
 


Falconhoof said:
I've lived in my house which I've a mortgage on for ten years and just received the first bill for groundrent. According to the letter it hasn't been paid for over thirty years. It's barely two quid a year.
I understand legally I should have to pay it but since it hasnt been paid for so long could I ignore it?
Would I be liable to the full 30+ years owed?
Could I buy the leasehold easily enough?
It's probably cost the solicitors more in office time and paperwork to post this out. Would it be an expensive process to buy the leasehold?
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They can be several thousand pounds. We enquired on our last house, and for us and our neighbour it was over 6k so we didn't bother. £7.50 a year would take a few lifetimes to reach that figure.
 
Falconhoof said:
I've lived in my house which I've a mortgage on for ten years and just received the first bill for groundrent. According to the letter it hasn't been paid for over thirty years. It's barely two quid a year.
I understand legally I should have to pay it but since it hasnt been paid for so long could I ignore it?
Would I be liable to the full 30+ years owed?
Could I buy the leasehold easily enough?
It's probably cost the solicitors more in office time and paperwork to post this out. Would it be an expensive process to buy the leasehold?
Click to expand...

No, you can't ignore it. It's a legally enforceable debt.

I'm not sure, but don't think you're liable for the full 30 years. Common sense says only for the 10 years you've been living there.

It depends if the leaseholder wants to sell or not. He doesn't have to. If he did want to, then it would be a normal legal process like buying a house - with similar costs. Most important of all with leasehold though is to check how many years are remaining on it!

A very unfair system leaseholding, but it's a relic of all the land 'ownership' history of this country way back in the past.
 
When I sold a previous house, I had to pay unpaid ground rent before the sale could go through. Looks like your solicitor has cocked up when you bought it as there appears to have been 20 years outstanding. Pass that bit to him to sort out and pay the £20 you owe, so far.
 
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LatchDiamond said:
What the fuck is ground rent???? :lol:

I own my home but never heard of this before
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If you have freehold, you own the land the house sits on. If its leasehold, someone else owns the land and you have to pay them ground rent.

OP if you are planning on extending the house, you might have to buy the freehold. I was told the previous owner of mine had to do that before they extended it.
 
I understand legally I should have to pay it but since it hasnt been paid for so long could I ignore it?
Not really, just pay it.

Would I be liable to the full 30+ years owed?
No, only since you took ownership, your solicitor should have sorted this, if they are still in business you should complain. It is probably less hassle just to pay the full outstanding amount.

Could I buy the leasehold easily enough?
Yes, 2 options, ask for a price and pay it via a solicitor OR argue with them how much you want to pay based on the ground rent x remaining years. The latter is cheaper but more hassle, if you have requested the former you can't do the latter until a period of time has expired (1 or 2 years iirc)

It's probably cost the solicitors more in office time and paperwork to post this out. Would it be an expensive process to buy the leasehold?
Our was a peppercorn rent, approx £1.50 every 6 months on a 999 year lease, house was built in 1930s, cost was £4000 plus our solicitors fees, all it it was less than £5k. Our solictors did tell us it was cheaper to pay the rent however....

following in from Ginger John, most leaseholds expect you to tell them about every single change to whats on their land, i.e. extensions, replacing windows, putting up a shed etc, they need to be listed on the mortgage and house insurance too, everything is admin costs. Then there is the risk of the portfolio being sold and the new owner putting the price up (this is more likely on new builds than old peppercorn ones)

The last issue with leaseholds is that house buyers hate them, even with a 999 year lease, leases have had a lot of bad press (rightly in most cases) putting off even more buyers.

I won't be buying a leasehold again.
 
Ginger John said:
If you have freehold, you own the land the house sits on. If its leasehold, someone else owns the land and you have to pay them ground rent.
Click to expand...

Think I'm right in saying Sunderland is the only place in the country where you can hold the freehold of a property and still have a ground rent charge.
 
The last house I lived in was leasehold. Lived there 10 years and paid £25 per year ground rent.
When I decided to sell it (4 years ago), it was virtually unsellable due to the lease "only" having 58 years left!!.
Had to buy the lease from from the leaseholders (Chancery St James). I made an offer of £1450 (58x£25) thinking that would be enough...how f***ing wrong was I??
Twelve grand they wanted....12 grand!!
After a few months of negotiating I got it down to £7500...still a hefty sum.
I had no choice to pay it it really, but harsh lesson learned. I wouldn't buy another leasehold.
 
t121anf said:
I understand legally I should have to pay it but since it hasnt been paid for so long could I ignore it?
Not really, just pay it.

Would I be liable to the full 30+ years owed?
No, only since you took ownership, your solicitor should have sorted this, if they are still in business you should complain. It is probably less hassle just to pay the full outstanding amount.

Could I buy the leasehold easily enough?
Yes, 2 options, ask for a price and pay it via a solicitor OR argue with them how much you want to pay based on the ground rent x remaining years. The latter is cheaper but more hassle, if you have requested the former you can't do the latter until a period of time has expired (1 or 2 years iirc)

It's probably cost the solicitors more in office time and paperwork to post this out. Would it be an expensive process to buy the leasehold?
Our was a peppercorn rent, approx £1.50 every 6 months on a 999 year lease, house was built in 1930s, cost was £4000 plus our solicitors fees, all it it was less than £5k. Our solictors did tell us it was cheaper to pay the rent however....

following in from Ginger John, most leaseholds expect you to tell them about every single change to whats on their land, i.e. extensions, replacing windows, putting up a shed etc, they need to be listed on the mortgage and house insurance too, everything is admin costs. Then there is the risk of the portfolio being sold and the new owner putting the price up (this is more likely on new builds than old peppercorn ones)

The last issue with leaseholds is that house buyers hate them, even with a 999 year lease, leases have had a lot of bad press (rightly in most cases) putting off even more buyers.

I won't be buying a leasehold again.
Click to expand...

The bloke who owns (owned) our last leasehold died with no dependents in about 2005. We had fees for our extension returned around then as he was 'deceased'. Whe we sold the house we had to pay the arrears to the solicitor. Who benefits from this? The solicitor. But really if it's two pound a f***ing year, really? I mean really? The price of half a pint every Christmas. FFS. Solicitors win every time. We had to pay any ground rent arrears (less than £50 IIRC) but then had to also pay for a solicitor to write up a document saying we would cover any arrears (more than £50).
 
Snaggletooth said:
The last house I lived in was leasehold. Lived there 10 years and paid £25 per year ground rent.
When I decided to sell it (4 years ago), it was virtually unsellable due to the lease "only" having 58 years left!!.
Had to buy the lease from from the leaseholders (Chancery St James). I made an offer of £1450 (58x£25) thinking that would be enough...how f***ing wrong was I??
Twelve grand they wanted....12 grand!!
After a few months of negotiating I got it down to £7500...still a hefty sum.
I had no choice to pay it it really, but harsh lesson learned. I wouldn't buy another leasehold.
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Minging company

its baltic said:
Minging company
Click to expand...
They quoted me 18000 just to extend, git surveyors and solicitors on it, got it down to 12500 , still came to 15000 after fees!
To basically change a number on a contract , absolute robbery!
I think leasehold is getting binned in new builds though ?
 
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Snaggletooth said:
The last house I lived in was leasehold. Lived there 10 years and paid £25 per year ground rent.
When I decided to sell it (4 years ago), it was virtually unsellable due to the lease "only" having 58 years left!!.
Had to buy the lease from from the leaseholders (Chancery St James). I made an offer of £1450 (58x£25) thinking that would be enough...how f***ing wrong was I??
Twelve grand they wanted....12 grand!!
After a few months of negotiating I got it down to £7500...still a hefty sum.
I had no choice to pay it it really, but harsh lesson learned. I wouldn't buy another leasehold.
Click to expand...

It depends entirely on the terms of your lease. For example, the one I just sold had the remainder of a 999 year lease and was built in 1959. Fuck me man, it's only £2 a year and unless I have misread, the Govt. have stepped in to prevent ridiculous increases. Who f***ing cares man? £2? Aye, don't get me wrong I would buy the freehold on a property as long as it was a few hundred quid, but again - it's not the freehold that costs, it's the lazy f***ing solicitors that make ALL property transactions so stressful that they become life threatening that want pulling up. f***ing fuckers. The next time I hear a solicitor say 'I will email them' I will start windmilling. PHONE THE FUCKERS UP.

Sorry, I am under some property transaction stress at the moment. I am self medicating though.
 
ouro said:
It depends entirely on the terms of your lease. For example, the one I just sold had the remainder of a 999 year lease and was built in 1959. Fuck me man, it's only £2 a year and unless I have misread, the Govt. have stepped in to prevent ridiculous increases. Who f***ing cares man? £2? Aye, don't get me wrong I would buy the freehold on a property as long as it was a few hundred quid, but again - it's not the freehold that costs, it's the lazy f***ing solicitors that make ALL property transactions so stressful that they become life threatening that want pulling up. f***ing fuckers. The next time I hear a solicitor say 'I will email them' I will start windmilling. PHONE THE FUCKERS UP.

Sorry, I am under some property transaction stress at the moment. I am self medicating though.
Click to expand...
:lol: The National Reserve have called up, the first pint is on the bar :lol:
 
ouro said:
They can be several thousand pounds. We enquired on our last house, and for us and our neighbour it was over 6k so we didn't bother. £7.50 a year would take a few lifetimes to reach that figure.
Click to expand...

How long is ya lease though.....I've had shoite for years with Simarc, every time ye change tenant £90, plus £30 ground rent....cost me £120 for Fookin quote, but to buy Freehold is £5,300 which I'll pay, plenty of lease hold horror stories out there, but until ye own the freehold ya effectively paying rent and they'll screw ye if ye want to extend lease
 
Cheers everyone. I'll look into buying it out just for the purpose of an easier sale. If it's expensive then I'll just stump up my two quid a year!
 

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