Ground rent

bambi1980_2

Hi, We are in the process of buying a house and have sold our own and moved out so there is no chain either side.

We have had a valuation done and believed the property to be freehold but have since learnt that it is in fact leasehold. It had a 999 year lease but the mortgage company Nationwide want to know how much ground rent the vendor pays and who to.

I have asked her estate agent to find out but they told me that her solicitor will handle this. No one seems to be coming back to me with the answer. My mortgage advisor thinks that without the information about ground rent Nationwide won't be able to issue a formal mortgage offer.

I don't want this little thing to hold things up as we are eager to move things along.

I know the vendor could ask her neighbours but her estate agents keep fobbing me off and won't ask her to do this.

Is there another way of finding out who she pays ground rent to and how much, is there an accessible database or something?

Thanks

csgohan4

Mention no info no sale

HappyMJ

bambi1980 wrote: »

Hi, We are in the process of buying a house and have sold our own and moved out so there is no chain either side.

We have had a valuation done and believed the property to be freehold but have since learnt that it is in fact leasehold. It had a 999 year lease but the mortgage company Nationwide want to know how much ground rent the vendor pays and who to.

I have asked her estate agent to find out but they told me that her solicitor will handle this. No one seems to be coming back to me with the answer. My mortgage advisor thinks that without the information about ground rent Nationwide won't be able to issue a formal mortgage offer.

I don't want this little thing to hold things up as we are eager to move things along.

I know the vendor could ask her neighbours but her estate agents keep fobbing me off and won't ask her to do this.

Is there another way of finding out who she pays ground rent to and how much, is there an accessible database or something?

Thanks

Solicitor will find that out during the purchase process. It's unlikely a 999 year lease will have any ground rent so I'd just continue as is.

I don't know who the freeholder is of my leasehold garage is so as a vendor I couldn't answer your question. You would have to ask your solicitor to ask my solicitor to read the lease. To get that far you would have to start the purchase process. You do not need a formal mortgage offer to start buying a house.

davidmcn

For the purposes of your application I would suggest you just put down £1 or some other negligible figure - the lender will only care if it's something significant which upsets the property's future marketability (or your affordability). Your solicitor will flag it up to the lender (and you) at a later stage if it matters.

AnnieO1234

It's possible your solicitor will simply advise you to pay for an absent freeholder indemnity policy. None of this should affect your mortgage offer. An older 999 year lease is most likely a peppercorn, and if it is a more recent 999 year lease I would be shocked if someone wasn't collecting the rent.

If the property has sold in recent years the information should be available on land registry for £3, search by address or pinpoint on map if address unclear, and obtain the leasehold title register.

This is common, don't worry about it. It is something that your solicitors will deal with.

Xxx

eddddy

Many leaseholders would have a copy of the lease safely filed away and could give you info on the ground rent in minutes.

Other leaseholders may have never looked at their lease, have no idea what the lease looks like, and just keep it in a box of 'legal-type stuff the solicitor gave me'.

If your seller is like the latter group, all you can really do is wait for the seller's solicitor to give your solicitor a copy of the lease.


(If you're into conspiracy theories - the seller/EA might be holding back info on the ground rent, because it's bad - and they want to get you more committed to the purchase before you find out. But I think that's less likely.)


Edit to add...

But perhaps if the seller is so dopey they can't tell you what their ground rent is, perhaps they are dopey enough to be mistaken about having a 999 year lease. ("My neighbour said their lease was 999 years, so I assumed mine was as well.")

bambi1980_2

Thanks for all the responses. I assume that my vendor doesn't pay ground rent maybe because no-one collects it.

Nationwide have been told to use a nominal figure for the ground rent for affordability purposes.