At my wit's end re Compton Group

JammieD_2

I have owned my house for almost 20 years now, & the mortgage will actually be fully repaid early in 2010. I have not paid any ground rent – I was actually under the impression that the lease had been bought by a previous owner, but this would not seem to be the case. However I have never had any correspondence from the leaseholders until August this year, when they wrote ordering me to insure the property with their approved insurer. This correspondence was addressed to a previous owner of my property – in fact there have been five changes of ownership since that particular person owned the property.

I have had family problems recently and this letter was the final straw – I am now not working due to stress and my blood pressure has gone up.

I probably will insure my property as they request - for a quiet life, but I am worried that this will not satisfy them (the commission that they would receive for this property can not amount to much) and I am left wondering what they will try to force me to do next. It seems ridiculous that these companies can have so much power over my property when they paid probably quite a small amount to buy the lease.

As a matter of fact I was so upset by this letter that I was prepared to walk out and abandon my property and let them deal with it all. I no longer want to live there as they have ruined my enjoyment of my house, and I don’t want to spend any more money on maintenance and redecoration – but I have no alternative as I cannot afford to move except into a cheaper property in a worse residential area – at my age I am unlikely to be able to get a mortgage, and I do not want to start renting as again the properties I could afford are in undesirable areas. I had been planning several changes to my property – new bathroom and kitchen etc, once I could start saving the money that would previously have gone to repay the mortgage, but now will have to forget any of this in order to scrape the money together to buy out the lease as this is obviously what they want.

Please can someone advise me as the best course of action?

DVardysShadow

Best course of action? Calm down and start looking for facts.

First off, I don't think they can make you insure with their choice of insurer, so check this out. Second, it may just be a try on to suggest that you don't own the freehold - don't hang your hopes on this but get to the bottom of this with a solicitor if necessary.

oldone_2

If the letter was sent to a previous owner of the house, I suggest you send it back marked not known at this address. Don't give them your name. I am pretty certain that they cannot force you to insure with their nominated insurance company, so is probably safe to ignore any of their demands.

1echidna

Strongly suggest you follow the above advice. I can understand that it may be hard for you not to worry unduly but 20 years is a long time for someone not to follow up on a lease and they may well have their facts mixed up or simply be trying it on.

Fire_Fox

Information on everything leasehold here, including legal requirements regarding insurance and ground rent, also a free telephone advice line:
http://www.lease-advice.org/

princeofpounds

Lots of freehold companies and their managing agents try on all sorts of ridiculous claims. The bottom line is that they cannot make you do anything that is not either required by law or agreed in your lease (and legally enforceable). Insurance is very unlikely to be one of these, although they might be required to purchase insurance for the whole building (but you do need that one way or the other).

They can't just seize your house or bill you on a whim. You might even be able to seize management powers from them outright.

But you need to understand how leases work. This will put you in a much more relaxed situation, knowledge is power. When people know their rights and reponsibilities, it tends to work well.

The link firefox gave you is a free government-funded advice service to help you with this. CAB can also help. You may also want to check out landlordzone too.

G_M

1) Are you sure they own the freehold? For £3 you can check with the Land Registry here.

2) Check the terms of your lease - you and/or your mortgage provider and/or your solicitor should have a copy. If not, it might well be lodged at the Land Registry (another £3 I'm afraid!)

3) Don't panic!

4) If you're so close to paying off the mortgage, could you pay it off early? Can't be much left?

5) If you're so close to paying off the mortgage, stick it out! Pay off the mortgage, sell the flat and move on.

6) Plus do all the stuff advised above (send letters back marked 'not known -RTS', check lease-holders rights)

7) They may not want you to buy the lease, and if they do, once you've paid off the mortgage next year and have some spare cash that might be a good idea anyway - if indeed you don't own it already and they're trying it on as suggested above!

8) don't panic!

9) don't get rushed into anything. There is little they can do to you, and what little there is will take a long time (and cost them money), so relax and DON@T PANIC (did I say that before?).

Let us know how you get on...