Ground Rent- Can they claim after 10 yrs?

sfell

Hi all, this is a query on behalf of a friend. She lives in a row of 6 houses which are leasehold. She hasn't paid ground rent for 10 yrs-neither has any other house owner in the row. She wants to move and is now having to settle the arrears, the money must be given to somone to hold for her (over 1K). Can anyone help?
Is this right? Can the insist on this? Anyone had simmilar problem? She origianlly tried to pay ground rent, but no-one ever collected it, I no information was provided either.

Any help much appreciated. :money:

deemy2004

There is a six year limit to how far back ground rent can be claimed, so she should set aside six years worth.

Why not just move and every year that passes reduce the amount set a side until times up !

No monies owed

trafalgar_2

deemy2004 wrote:

There is a six year limit to how far back ground rent can be claimed, so she should set aside six years worth.

Why not just move and every year that passes reduce the amount set a side until times up !

No monies owed

I'm a bit confused on this one Deemy can you clarify this please.....when I had a leasehold flat ,a neighbour didn't pay their ground rent either and it was levied against the flat so when they came to sell it ,it showed up and the new people couldn't get a mortgage on it as the debt was 'sitting on it'............and the mortgage people held it back,until the sellers cleared it .

tetley

2 things,you cant sell the house without showing that the existing ground rent has been paid,i have just sold my house with ground rent.and hadnt paid in seven years.( have now finally paid his next of kin,who didnt even know he owned land,hence no bill)
2nd.if you can prove that you have tried to pay the ground rent every year,either through the landlords agent,or direct to themselves at the address given to you when you bought the house,(but he had moved) which i tried to do many times,i have now been informed that he died over 6 years ago,(you cant pay money to a dead man, only his estate) then not only can they not ( next of kin,or the land owner,or agent ) enforce the debt after 10 years,but you can also petition the court to give you the freehold subject to 10X of the annual rent,plus costs.
plus as a point of interest,if the new owners of the groundrent decided to increase it,then they can PROVIDING that they give you a increase in service.
eg.i pay £2 a year in groundrent,£1 for the house and £1 a year to use what is called "common ground" an open expanse of land behind all the house,unfenced,sort of "communial land",which we all look after.
if the new owners decided to increase this £1 payment to £100,then they can do so,provided that they can justify it,which would mean,they would have to mow it etc,quite all right by me,as it takes me over 2 hours to mow,so i would accept it.( ive bought 3 petrol movers in the time i have been here,at a cost of over £400)

Debt_Free_Chick

Just to clarify the "time limit" issue.

There is certainly a time limit for claiming payment of certain "debts" and it is, indeed, 6 years for personal unsecured debt. Other debts though, have different limits. IIRC "property" is 12 years and ground rent may fall into that category. In fact, the time limits do not apply strictly to debts, but to claims for payment. The relevant authority is the Limitation Act 1980.

However, this might not be a "debt" as such. One needs to look at all the small print to see what was said about payment of ground rent - as two posters have suggested.

zzzLazyDaisy

It can be even more complicated than just paying the back pay. No-ne is going to get rich on ground rent, but some unscrupulous companies buy up ground rents in the hope of selling the freehold to the home owners at a huge profit. The other way they make a quick buck is to let people slip into arrears, and then charge them 'administration charges' for dealing with the debt. These charges can amount to many times the outstanding ground rent. They know that they have the house owner over a barrel, because in order to sell a leasehold house, you have to be able to prove the ground rent is up to date.

Also, make sure you get a proper receipt detailing what the payment is for. I paid my ground rent every year, over the phone by debit card, and received a debit card receipt in the post from the company, which I kept as proof of payment. When I moved, the buyer's solicitor wanted written confirmation that the ground rent was paid up (as the debit card receipt could have been for anything) - the company charged me £50 for a letter confirming the ground rent was up to date. I couldn't argue the toss as I was in a chain and needed to complete on my sale.

My friend, in a similar position argued with them, there was a flurry of letters (which they charged for at £25 a time). They weren't having any of it, and all she acheived was big bill.... and she lost her buyer!