Ground rent scandal - PETITION

ASGM

Ground rent must be ABOLISHED for ALL leases, not just new ones

Onerous ground rent clauses must become a thing of the past: people with doubling ground rent are now struggling to sell their properties.

Please sign and most importantly SHARE the following petition:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/214195
(copy and paste the above in your browser as I am not able to post links as a new user)

We need 100,000 signatures for the Parliament to debate on it

Crashy_Time

ASGM wrote: »

Ground rent must be ABOLISHED for ALL leases, not just new ones

Onerous ground rent clauses must become a thing of the past: people with doubling ground rent are now struggling to sell their properties.

Please sign and most importantly SHARE the following petition:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/214195
(copy and paste the above in your browser as I am not able to post links as a new user)

We need 100,000 signatures for the Parliament to debate on it

They would have known about this before they bought though, or did they think property prices would more than make up for it?

Norman_Castle

Restricting increases linked to hpi or similar might be a better solution.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/214195

chucknorris

ASGM wrote: »

Ground rent must be ABOLISHED for ALL leases, not just new ones

Onerous ground rent clauses must become a thing of the past: people with doubling ground rent are now struggling to sell their properties.

Please sign and most importantly SHARE the following petition:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/214195
(copy and paste the above in your browser as I am not able to post links as a new user)

We need 100,000 signatures for the Parliament to debate on it

I don't think doubling every 25 years is particularly onerous, it is less than 3% per annum.

kinger101

While I disagree with ground rents that double every ten years, I can't see the government bringing in a retroactive law on this. While Parliament can do this, it's always controversial. Essentially, you'd be depriving someone of income to which they were previously legally entitled.

As much as it sucks, the homeowners and their solicitors are responsible for making such a bad deal. I'd rather those legal professionals who were negligent in spelling out the consequences were dealt with.

chucknorris

kinger101 wrote: »

While I disagree with ground rents that double every ten years, I can't see the government bringing in a retroactive law on this. While Parliament can do this, it's always controversial. Essentially, you'd be depriving someone of income to which they were previously legally entitled.

As much as it sucks, the homeowners and their solicitors are responsible for making such a bad deal. I'd rather those legal professionals who were negligent in spelling out the consequences were dealt with.

I considered investing in ground rents about 6 years ago, but I decided that I was too old (I was 54 at the time), plus I was concerned about the legislation risk.

davidmcn

ASGM wrote: »

Ground rent must be ABOLISHED for ALL leases, not just new ones

Onerous ground rent clauses must become a thing of the past: people with doubling ground rent are now struggling to sell their properties.

Please sign and most importantly SHARE the following petition:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/214195
(copy and paste the above in your browser as I am not able to post links as a new user)

We need 100,000 signatures for the Parliament to debate on it

That's nice. You realise the freeholders will need to be compensated (basic ECHR principles here) - so are the leaseholders paying that? Could be a chunky sum involved. Or are they hoping the rest of us will chip in for them?

ASGM

Hi davidmcn

If the government abolishes ground rent only for new leases existing leases may suddenly lose value and be significantly affected- how fair is that?

The government must not leave hundreds of thousands of homeowners behind

Re doubling ground rent clauses, most banks who previously approved mortgages on properties with such clauses now they don’t: if freeholders do nothing again I think the government must intervene to push for a change in the legislation and coherently with its plans on new leases propose to abolish this Middle Age ground rent regime once and for all

kinger101

ASGM wrote: »

If the government abolishes ground rent only for new leases existing leases may suddenly lose value and be significantly affected- how fair is that?

It's a whole lot fairer than the taxpayer compensating the current freeholders, which they would probably be required to do if the government introduced a retroactive law which deprived someone of their assets. I already resent the bad deals struck for PPI. I don't wont to have to fork out for every private citizen that makes a bad bargain due to lack of due diligence.

davidmcn

ASGM wrote: »

Hi davidmcn

If the government abolishes ground rent only for new leases existing leases may suddenly lose value and be significantly affected- how fair is that?

The government must not leave hundreds of thousands of homeowners behind

Re doubling ground rent clauses, most banks who previously approved mortgages on properties with such clauses now they don’t: if freeholders do nothing again I think the government must intervene to push for a change in the legislation and coherently with its plans on new leases propose to abolish this Middle Age ground rent regime once and for all

You haven't answered my point - it isn't possible for Parliament to simply "abolish" anybody's property rights. They need to provide for adequate compensation. Which presumably in this case would be coming from the relevant leaseholders? Do they all want to pay out the monies involved?

Marvel1

They knew about this when buying.

As for doubling every 10/25 years. People's rent usually increase £40-£50 a month each year and others say well it's the market rate, it's no different.