Bought new house, unexpected rent demand

Riggster

I'd just pay the £60 and be done.

Yorkie1

Corners wrote: »

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.

I'd definitely make a formal complaint to the solicitors then, on the basis of what you've outlined on here. They negligently failed to supply you with information about legal liabilities you may incur. You could, for example, have used the information to negotiate a lower purchase price had you known.

It sounds as though you are indeed liable for the payment; your choice whether to pay rent or buy them out, but as it's only £60 I'd be minded to buy them out and I would then ask the solicitors to reimburse you.

DRP

Yorkie1 wrote: »

I'd definitely make a formal complaint to the solicitors then, on the basis of what you've outlined on here. They negligently failed to supply you with information about legal liabilities you may incur. You could, for example, have used the information to negotiate a lower purchase price had you known.

It sounds as though you are indeed liable for the payment; your choice whether to pay rent or buy them out, but as it's only £60 I'd be minded to buy them out and I would then ask the solicitors to reimburse you.

This sound similar to the type of historical rent payment associated with my house. I thought if the vendor has never received demands then a fee equivalent to 6? years rent is payable by vendor to the new owner as part of the sale transaction (because 6? years is as far back as unpaid rent can be claimed).

That's the situation with our property according to our sols anyway

JQ.

A Chief Rent can be payable on Freehold properties and is not that unusual - so all the talk of leasehold's is irrelevant. Your solicitor should have picked this up, however, in the greater scheme of things would £60 have made a big difference to your purchase price? I'd get your solicitor to confirm whether it's payable and then just pay it.

dominoman

Ask your solicitor to pay it, or you will make a formal complaint. It was their job to make you aware of this charge.

xylophone

If you are going to "redeem", it looks as though you will need to be sure that the correct legal procedure is followed to "extinguish" the charge - see link in post 12 above.

chappers

xylophone wrote: »

If you are going to "redeem", it looks as though you will need to be sure that the correct legal procedure is followed to "extinguish" the charge - see link in post 12 above.

Absolutely, but use a better solicitor than the one that did your conveyancing, he should have made you aware of this rent regardless of whether it was being collected or not, and pointed out the risks involved with it.
The very least he should have done is given you a copy of the title register.
The only exception would have been if his contract with you laid the responsibilty with you, to find out about rents and charges payable.

Corners

Again, thank you everyone for all the advice and feedback. I think I will pay it off and get rid. Cheers!

JQ.

Corners wrote: »

Again, thank you everyone for all the advice and feedback. I think I will pay it off and get rid. Cheers!

A sensible simple stress free solution.

Mylo_The_Moggy

We purchased our house in January which is listed as freehold aswel as leasehold. Apparently the whole of the land/garden the house is built on has a 999 year lease.
The previous occupants used to pay around £3 a year for the lease, but never paid anything for the last 8-10 years of living there. Not sure why payments stopped, but they've never had any demands or letters as such.
Our solicitor told us the leaseholders can only claim 6 years previous so it wouldn't amount to much if we did ever receive anything.
It does mention in our paperwork that the previous owner took out an indemnity policy for the amount they purchased the house for, & it has been updated to the amount we bought it for.
Is this some sort of protection or insurance for the leasehold?
The whole of the street was once leasehold, & there are still a few houses listed still, but most ppl bought out the leases.
I do worry that we could get a big bill someday though but I guess £3 a year isn't a massive chunk.