Bought new house, unexpected rent demand

Corners

Hi, I purchased a freehold property over a year ago and have received a 'rent demand' from a local trust who apparently used to own the land. The trust is a charity and rent is about £6 a year or I can redeem it by paying x10 the yearly rent.
When I bought the house I was not made aware of this, does anyone have any idea if I am still liable to pay this charge?
Thank you
Corners

antrobus

Corners wrote: »

Hi, I purchased a freehold property over a year ago and have received a 'rent demand' from a local trust who apparently used to own the land. The trust is a charity and rent is about £6 a year or I can redeem it by paying x10 the yearly rent.
When I bought the house I was not made aware of this, does anyone have any idea if I am still liable to pay this charge?..

Impossible to tell without looking at the 'deeds', but it sounds like ground rent. The answer is likely, yes you 'have' to pay it, but given that it's only £6 pa, not paying it will likely mean nothing more than the £6s will roll up and get settled by your conveyancer when you eventually come to sell it.

stebiz

And it won't be Freehold. If you go to Land registry and pay £3 you'll see who owns your land. If it is them it will tell you how long the lease is. Most likely a 999 year lease and nothing to worry about. I won quite a few ground rents myself.

Corners

Thank you for the replies. I have now got a copy of the title from the Land Registry and the property is freehold however there is a charges register section which details the rent. I guess I am still liable then even though I was not told about it when the house was purchased.

stebiz

Corners wrote: »

Thank you for the replies. I have now got a copy of the title from the Land Registry and the property is freehold however there is a charges register section which details the rent. I guess I am still liable then even though I was not told about it when the house was purchased.

It will be Freehold but is there mention of a lease and who owns the freehold. If you own the freehold it goes without saying you don't pay rent?? Not being funny just trying to help.

Corners

There is no mention of a lease as such however the charges section state the land is subject to this charge which was agreed with the buyers of the land over 50 years ago.

Yorkie1

Corners wrote: »

Thank you for the replies. I have now got a copy of the title from the Land Registry and the property is freehold however there is a charges register section which details the rent. I guess I am still liable then even though I was not told about it when the house was purchased.

Did you not get sent a copy of the register by your conveyancer when you bought? Did they not mention this at all?

If not, I'd try complaining to the conveyancer about this. You never know, they might reimburse you for buying out the rentcharge.

stebiz

Corners wrote: »

There is no mention of a lease as such however the charges section state the land is subject to this charge which was agreed with the buyers of the land over 50 years ago.

Interesting. Does it say who registered owner is of the FREEHOLD?

xylophone

But if your property is "freehold" then you own both the house and the land on which it stands?

Why should you have to pay rent for land that you own?

And the "redemption" - the charge is gone for good if you pay £60 now?

You should contact the solicitor who acted for you in the purchase?

Corners

Thank you for all the replies.

I was not sent a copy of the register by the conveyancer.
I have spoken to them and they told me the previous owner had mentioned the matter but they had not received any demands for payment recently, as a consequence I was not told about the situation. I have been advised I am still liable for the payment.

On the register my name is in the title absolute.
The rent thing is mentioned as a covenant in the charges section.
The charge is gone if I pay 10x the yearly rent, just over £60.

The_Earl_of_Streatham

This sounds like a rentcharge, a charge made on land by someone who through some covenant has retained a financial interest in the land.

It's come up on the forum before so worth doing a search. A google search took me to the link below, which seems to explain it quite well.

http://www.fridaysmove.com/bath-conveyancing-expert-explains-why-you-might-have-pay-ground-rent-freehold-property/17366