Chief Rent Questions

UV

Hi, we moved into a new house last year, and have recently received a bill for £10 for chief rent on our property from Shenstone Properties. The letter was addressed to the previous owner, and we only opened it in error, so my partner called Shenstone to ask them to send letters in future addressed to the occupier which they agreed to do, and we duly sent them a cheque for the £10. We have now reveived the cheque back uncashed with a letter saying that our solicitor should have informed them of the change of ownership with a "Notice of Assignment and Charge" and are now demanding that we pay an additional £70 for their administration costs.

I have subsequently been doing some internet research and have found out that "losing" cheques and communications, then chargng admin or recovery fees is common from companies such as Shenstone, but I can also well believe that the solicitor did not inform them (they are now digging their records out of the vaults). Are Shenstone entitled to ask for an arbitrary admin fee for this? What legal requirements do I have to inform them and pay their admin fees? I have been looking through the deeds and searches, and there is nothing to indicate that it is even Shenstone who have the right to collect the chief rent other than the fact the previous owner used to deal with them.

My searches for information on Chief Rents didn't throw up much solid information on the subject however, so I am still left with a number of questions which I'd be grateful if anyone could answer so that I may be more sure of my legal position on this.

1) How do I find out who has the right to collect chief rent? I have looked on the Land Registry sight and there are 2 entries for my property, one is for "Tenure: Freehold" which I assume is the title register and plan I have in the documentation I have from the purchase of the house, the other is "Tenure: Rentcharge". If I purchase this is it likely to give me the name of the chief rent rights owner or might it simply be a duplicate of the other details? If it is different is it not something which I should have received from my solicitor as part of the house purchase?

2) Looking at the charges register on the title register, there are two chief rents mentioned, one for £30 as part of unknown other plots of land, and one for £7.3s.10d which I believe is specific to my property and the property next door (this is later split 50/50 into 2 lots of £3.11s.11d). My question is is it possible to have two chief rents applicable to a property, or is the £7.3s.10d simply an apportionment of the original £30 charge which was attributable to a larger plot of land, and any documentation of this apportionment has been lost? The charges register is as follows:

1 The land in this title is with other land unknown subject to a yearly rentcharge of £30 created by a Conveyance dated 12 September 1864 made between (1) Mr A (2) Mr B and Mr C and (3) TRH D mentioned in the Conveyance dated 2 July 1868 referred to below in which it is stated that the land in this title is indemnified from the said rentcharge. No other particulars of the rentcharge or of the said indemnification were supplied on first registration.

2 The Conveyance dated 12 September 1864 referred to above contains Covenants.

3 The land in this title with other land is subject to a perpetual yearly rentcharge of £7.3s.10d created by a Conveyance dated 2 July 1868 made between (1) Mrs A (2) Mr E (3) Mr F. The said Deed also contains covenants.

NOTE 1: Abstract filed

By an Assent dated 26 February 1959 made between (1) Mr G and Miss H and (2) Mr I the land in this title was expressed to be assented. Subject to the payment of an informally apportioned sum of £3.11s.11d expressed to be the residue of the rentcharge of £7.3s.10d referred to above but no evidence of any apportionment was produced on first registration.

NOTE 2: Copy filed.

It seems to me that even if Shenstone do own the right to collect the Chief rent, they are not charging the correct amount.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

sonastin

I'd download the rentcharge document from the land registry. For the sake of £4, it might answer some of your questions.

I'd also speak to your solicitors about this - once they've had chance to ressurrect your file from the archive. If there is a register of chief rent on the land registry and they failed to inform you / Shenstone then I would say the solicitors are at fault.

peter_m14

You can apply to the National Rentcharges Unit, which is part of the Department for Communities and Local Government, to redeem either apportion a rentcharge to the amount in the latest deed or redeem the rentcharge entirely. They can be contacted on 0303 4444560