ground rent

[jaycee401]

I need to find out who I should be paying ground rent to. My next door neighbour used to collect the £1.30 twice yearly and send it off. Since she died 6 years and the property she lived in rented out no-one has collected any money from me. I am doing a remortgage and the solicitors have asked for my recent receipt, but I have not got anything, I do not even know the leaseholders name!

[redcrx]

have you got a copy of your lease?

[sallybb]

We had this problem last year., with our daughters flat purchased last spring. Ground rent hadnt been paid to the freeholder for years and we were concerned that she would get clobbered for the lot. Our solicitor traced the freeholders ( their names was on the lease). By tracing them we were able to extend the lease at a cost and they have never bothered to collect ground rent. I would guess that your deeds would give details of the freeholder. If you havent got a copy Landregistry will supply a copy for very small fee.

[jaycee401]

Thanks for replies, I dont have a copy of the lease, but I can download one from the land reg.

[sallybb]

Jaycee , just reread your Question. Do your morgage company hold your copy of your lease?

[jaycee401]

Hi Sally, I'm not sure, i know i don't have anything. The solicitors who are acting for me are free with the mortgage deal, I normally have another solicitor who I deal with, so I have rung her to ask. It's strange as when I re-mortgage 2 years ago I was never asked for this info.

[jaycee401]

Found a copy of th title! it says hort particulars of the lease under which the land is help then a date term and parties! No idea how I find their addresses or anything though!

[sallybb]

Sorry jaycee, have only just come back on line, Dog asked for a walk earlier , couldnt resist her eyes.
Morgage companies usually hold onto the deeds , as they are an interested party. You can ask them for a copy, but they charge an admin cost, it is cheaper to down load from Land registry.
Its such a small amount of ground rent, and if the freeholder was interested in collecting it I'm sure he would have been on your doorstep, asking for payment. I guess that your solicitor is more thorough than the last one. The solicitor we used, picked up on a few things and insisted that seller of the property purchased for our daughter paid for an insurance policy that covered damage caused by others properties, apparently its a one of payment . I guess its how good the solicitor is, . I dont think its anything to worry about , if the freeholder is like the one with dealt with an 'absent landlord'. I must say i found it strange that your neighbour collected the rent to pass on. Its usually down to the individual to pay direct. If the soliciter is adament of the freeholders whereabouts, let them search, but I doubt if they will bother over a small amount.

[jaycee401]

Thanks Sally, I have the same problem with my dogs eyes lol. From what I can remember it was the responsibility of the neighbour to collect the ground rent from me and to send payment for both houses to the freeholder. I friend who lived round the corner was responsible for collecting from about 10 houses on her road. My solicitor is trying to trace the freeholder, if no luck and she still wants to persue then hopefully I can take out some indemnity insurance.

[jaycee401]

my solicitor has emailed me to say 'from the details on the official copies, it is unlikely that you will be able to trace the freeholder and , as is common, it is likely that it has simply become uneconomic for then to collect the rent. We normally solve the technical title issue by obtaining an absent landlord indemnity policy…'

Hopefully this will satisfy the lender. I think I then will need to see if I can purchase the lease if thats possible, once the remortgage has completed so this will not hinder any future sale.

[sallybb]

Looks like you are on the way to getting sorted:-)

[jaycee401]

I hope so, this has been a nightmare from the start. Just waiting for a call back now, as they have to serve the freeholder with notice to say we are doing a remortgage, but if they don't no where he is then he can't be served, don't no how we get passed that one!