Buying out ground rent

GlynD

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

Yeah read that!! still clear as mud!!!! :rotfl:

I didn't read it. :rotfl:

Easymoney

martin57 wrote: »

Ground rent in my opinions is a total rip off and even worse some people even shrug their shoulders and laugh and say "I wont pay it"

A bad idea, technically speaking if you pay ground rent and you miss a few years, you can be taken to court and in the worse cases you can even loose your house, because ground rent is in fact the charge for you to lease the land that the house stands on from the freeholder. You don't pay the ground rent, he can reclaim his land, simple as that! with your house on it.

After moving into my present property which had ground rent of £30 per year, I was given the run around by a cunning freeholder sending me a bill for over £200 saying that ground rent wasn't paid. It was, and I let him know that should he continue to harass me he would be taken to court, he denied it all of course blamed it on an employee.

The truth of the matter is in my opinion if you have ground rent on your property and you don't buy it out, then the freeholder or his agent had a stranglehold on you, and you can't sleep soundly in your bed, because no matter what your house cost, someone else has a say in who owns it i.e if you don't pay or happen to miss a ground rent payment you could get a threatening letter about going to court and even loosing your home. I did get one of these myself a few years down the line as I wasn't on time with my ground rent payment.

I bought mine out a few years ago overall cost near £600 but when I was at it I got the freehold as well, though as stated above the covenants in the lease still stand.

I feel very strongly about this and feel sorry for a lot of people who simply stick their heads in the sand as regards ground rent, and don't realise that their home could be at risk.

I know some won't agree with me but buying it out makes me feel a lot more relaxed about owning my house.

Martin57

Scandless! it's a racket

my solicitor told me ground rent could be claimed/back dated to 5 or 6 years if it hadn't been paid by previous owner...................according to neighbours, ground rent has not been collected in my area for years.

martin57

Easymoney wrote: »

Scandless! it's a racket

my solicitor told me ground rent could be claimed/back dated to 5 or 6 years if it hadn't been paid by previous owner...................according to neighbours, ground rent has not been collected in my area for years.

Seems nice and cosy, maybe if the freeholder has died and no relatives are aware of the situation.

OR Maybe not, these things have a habit of coming back to bite you in the bum! As I said before even in this area people just laugh and say I am not going to pay it, they really haven't a leg to stand on as its a legal contract. Why would any freeholder let anyone off when he has a development with say 150 houses on it at £30 a year?

I would rather have it all sorted out and know that my house that I paid a lot of money for is really mine, and that the land it stands on is mine as well, with no one such as a freeholder or his/her agent pulling the strings.

martin57

Easymoney

martin57 wrote: »

Seems nice and cosy, maybe if the freeholder has died and no relatives are aware of the situation.

OR Maybe not, these things have a habit of coming back to bite you in the bum! As I said before even in this area people just laugh and say I am not going to pay it, they really haven't a leg to stand on as its a legal contract. Why would any freeholder let anyone off when he has a development with say 150 houses on it at £30 a year?

I would rather have it all sorted out and know that my house that I paid a lot of money for is really mine, and that the land it stands on is mine as well, with no one such as a freeholder or his/her agent pulling the strings.

martin57

maybe the 999years are up?!!! LOL

I agree, the parameter of ones house should be entirely theirs.

Can a freeholder refuse to sell out or is a right of the property owner if they decide to do so?

martin57

I would doubt the 999 years are up, it seems to be easy enough to buy out the ground rent but getting the freehold in my case took a few years, very slow the land registry.

I'm not too sure what the freeholder can do as buying out the freehold, but as far as I know he can't object to someone buying out ground rent, probably in a lot of cases he might even encourage it as he gets 9 times ground rent in a lump sum and he will have to pay no agent to collect ground rent in future for that property.

I would think that you could fill in the forms yourself to buy out ground rent and pay a solicitor just to witness it.

Freehold will be more complicated and will have extra fees both to solicitor and land registry.

To be honest my place was on a 10,000 years lease, no one in their right mind would be worried about that amount of time, god knows if these houses will be even standing in 70-80 years time.

But its really a case of feeling secure in your own home after spending a lot of money to buy it, and the ability to live hassle free without someone breathing down your neck every year demanding their ground rent and threatening you with court action if you fall a little behind.

You feel like you are been told "hey you own the house but you better realise you are only renting the land that the house stands on and we will make doubly sure you stick to your side of the deal....or else !!"

Its even written into some leaseholds that interest can be charged on the ground rent owing.

martin57

GlynD

Don't quote me on this but I'm sure when I was speed reading through the legislation at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nia/2001/5/contents it said somewhere that the leaseholder can't prevent you buying out the ground rent.

Easymoney

martin57 wrote: »

I would doubt the 999 years are up, it seems to be easy enough to buy out the ground rent but getting the freehold in my case took a few years, very slow the land registry.

I'm not too sure what the freeholder can do as buying out the freehold, but as far as I know he can't object to someone buying out ground rent, probably in a lot of cases he might even encourage it as he gets 9 times ground rent in a lump sum and he will have to pay no agent to collect ground rent in future for that property.

I would think that you could fill in the forms yourself to buy out ground rent and pay a solicitor just to witness it.

Freehold will be more complicated and will have extra fees both to solicitor and land registry.

To be honest my place was on a 10,000 years lease, no one in their right mind would be worried about that amount of time, god knows if these houses will be even standing in 70-80 years time.

But its really a case of feeling secure in your own home after spending a lot of money to buy it, and the ability to live hassle free without someone breathing down your neck every year demanding their ground rent and threatening you with court action if you fall a little behind.

You feel like you are been told "hey you own the house but you better realise you are only renting the land that the house stands on and we will make doubly sure you stick to your side of the deal....or else !!"

Its even written into some leaseholds that interest can be charged on the ground rent owing.

martin57

So not only did you buy out the ground rent, but the leasehold too? Did that include any covenants?

Easymoney

GlynD wrote: »

Don't quote me on this but I'm sure when I was speed reading through the legislation at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nia/2001/5/contents it said somewhere that the leaseholder can't prevent you buying out the ground rent.

Hopefully they can be bought?!! On a recent episode of "double your house" they bought out the Leaseholder for thousands

BatCat

From what I understand if you request to buy out the ground rent (per the 2001 legislation) they cannot refuse.
Solicitor costs are £150 + vat. I need to confirm if this is also the cost for the 10 years worth of ground rent.
We are looking to but it out as we have a slightly dodgy extension (planning permission and building control approved) and our solicitor advised that we could both buy out the ground and confirm that status of the extension in one fell swoop.

Easymoney

BatCat wrote: »

From what I understand if you request to buy out the ground rent (per the 2001 legislation) they cannot refuse.
Solicitor costs are £150 + vat. I need to confirm if this is also the cost for the 10 years worth of ground rent.
We are looking to but it out as we have a slightly dodgy extension (planning permission and building control approved) and our solicitor advised that we could both buy out the ground and confirm that status of the extension in one fell swoop.

Interesting. Let us know the outcome