Peppercorn Rent...do I Have To Pay It?

JPanter

After owning my home for 12 months I have received a letter from a parasite demanding ground rent. Although my house is freehold apparently someone else owns the right to charge me ground rent. I checked with my solicitor who confirms this. However they told me that I could buy the ground rent for 10 times the yearly charge. I have offered to pay this fee to which the holder of the deeds has agreed BUT they want additional admin fees. Do they have the right to rip me off further and charge what they like on top and call it admin fees? Ok, so the annual ground rent is only £6.30 so to buy them out would only cost me £63, but why should I pay them more some figure they come up with off the top of their head? What are my rights?

EdInvestor

Check here: https://www.lease-advice.org.uk

There would be some legal work involved that's probably what it is and they are entitled to charge you for this.

Your property may not be freehold in fact, but rather have a very long lease of the 750 years variety.

Ian_W

It is normal, as Ed says, for the leaseholder to pay the reasonable legal costs of the freeholder when buying them out. However, you don't have to buy it, you can simply continue to pay £6.50 per annum when this is demanded.

In this area there are many properties on 999yr l/holds where the ground rent hasn't been collected for years as it is uneconomic to do so and the freeholder is lost in the mists of time. There is a bit more legal paperwork when buying, selling or remortgaging so if you can get the freehold for a couple of hundred quid I personally would.