Ground rent demand for last 7 years!!!

Windsorcastle

I bought a freehold property in mid-2005, which came with an allocated off-street parking space, for which I was aware I had to pay rent and service charge. I have received and paid quarterly charges which were headed 'Rent/Service Charge', assuming that covered everything payable. Then today, out of the blue, I received a new demand that was just for Ground Rent on the parking space, for each half year, dating right back to the start of 2004!!

It was only on checking the bills I have paid that I saw they were just for service charge and I had never been billed for ground rent; this was a genuine shock.

Firstly, I assume I can refuse to pay ground rent that pre-dates me buyting my property? But secondly, is there any way I can appeal against paying some of the charge on the grounds that the landlords are vclaiming so long after the periods charged? It seems unreasonable that they can just suddenly realise that they haven't charged for ground rent for 7 years!!

I'm also really angry because the demand gives me just 3 weeks to pay this 7 year-old debt, otherwise it says further charges will be added.

Any advice on this please?

BitterAndTwisted

Usually, when you buy a property any liability for outstanding ground-rent and/or service charges are settled from the funds on sale, so you shouldn't have inherited any. Check the documentation which your solicitor should have supplied you with.

As to the back-dated ground-rent: yes, they can send you a demand for it even if it's not been charged before as an oversight. If it's due and payable they will take you to court for it and if they win, a charge could be put on your property. Much better to cough up now and avoid that possibility.

How much are they demanding from you in total?

Ulfar

Depending on how much your ground rent is, I would be asking to redeem the ground rent, this would leave only the service charge to pay.

propertyman

Windsorcastle wrote: »

I bought a freehold property in mid-2005, which came with an allocated off-street parking space, for which I was aware I had to pay rent and service charge

Rent can only be invoiced for 6 years under the Limitations Act, and any rent must be demanded in an invoice which clearly states the periods eg 1-1-2005 to 31-12-2005, and that is the same as your lease says, the name and address of the landlord and has a notice with it entitled notice under section 166 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. If it does not met that criteria " it ain't due" ( but you must tell them that.....)

You do have to pay the rents for a period prior to your occupation as you have bought an existing lease, not a new one for you.Your solicitor should have made sure that all payments due were paid up to date, or were being settled by the seller prior to your completing the purchase.

You might want to check your files to make sure that the agent has not made a mistake.

tbs624

OP - from the Leasehold Advisory Service webpage:

Notice for payment of ground rent

The leaseholder is not liable to pay the ground rent unless the landlord has demanded it. The demand must be in the prescribed form and must specify:

• the amount of the rent due;
• the date on which the leaseholder is liable to pay it, or if the demand is sent after the due date, the date on which it would have been payable under the terms of the lease.

The date specified for payment must not be less than 30 days or more than 60 days after date of service of the Notice, or before it is meant to be paid in accordance with the lease. It may be sent by post to the address of the house or flat to which it relates, unless the leaseholder has previously notified the landlord of an alternative address.


The Notice of Demand must also include:

• the name of the leaseholder to whom the notice is given;
• the period for which the rent demanded relates;
• the name and address of the person or company to whom the payment is to be made;
• the name and address of the landlord (or agent if applicable) by whom the notice is given;
• certain supporting information, provided as notes to the Notice.

The landlord cannot begin any legal steps for recovery of the rent, including action for forfeiture and possession, unless he has previously served the demand in the correct format, given the correct period of notice, and the leaseholder has failed to respond." My highlighting in red.

As others have said, your solicitor should have ensured that any debts on GR etc were paid off prior to the final stage of your purchase of the property.

Perhaps you also need to accept some personal responsibility here though - you seem to have known that you would be obliged to pay both GR and SC, and yet failed to notice that you were only being billed for one of those over the past 6 or so years. Did it not occur to you to query the matter or did you hope you had "got away" with a lower bill?

Windsorcastle

Thanks for all the previous replies. The bill I have recived is broken down into 6 month periods of £25 per 6 months, so the total bill comes in at £375. I genuinely did not think I was 'getting away with anything' as I have immediately paid every bill I have received since I purchased the property and each of these is headed "Rent/Service Charge demand" so I assumed I was being billed for whatever was due. It was only when I recived this bill detailing Ground Rent that I checked back and saw that every previous bill referred to Service Charge in the actual itemisation.

How do I check that my solicitor made sure the outstanding bill had been paid by the vendors when I bought the property? Is there somewhere in the paperwork I should look for this?

Many thanks.

Windsorcastle

What does asking for the ground rent to 'be redeemed' mean? On what grounds can I ask them to do this? Thanks.

Windsorcastle

...and a couple of extra things have sprung to mind. Is £50 ground rent a year, plus service charges of about £12 a quarter reasonable, just for a parking space? As far as I can see, I get nothing at all for the service charge, the landlords occasionally trim back the trees in the forecourt, but they also allow items of furniture to be dumped there for months without being cleared.

Secondly, if the Limitation Act 1980 says that ground rent can only be demanded for the past 6 years, can I just refuse to pay the previous portion accordingly? That would actually be very tidy for me, because I have owned the property for exactly 6 years, so am prepared to pay that amount of rent but strongly object to paying off the debts of teh previous owner.

Thanks as always for everyone's kind advice

Ulfar

Windsorcastle wrote: »

What does asking for the ground rent to 'be redeemed' mean? On what grounds can I ask them to do this? Thanks.

Redeeming a ground rent means you make a one off payment for the ground rent and it doesn't need to be paid again. However you can't do this with service charges.