Coppen estates?

tany_2

Has anyone else recieved a letter from Coppen estates, Hickmott Road, Sheffield, S11 8QF demanding ground rent for various amounts. My brother rang them and it seems they are a one man outfit and it all sounds like a scam.In the letter it says no personal callers.

Would be interested if anyone else has received anything similar.

maninthestreet

More details please - is the property your brother lives in leasehold? If so, who is the leaseholder? Coppens Estates appears to be an Estate Agent.

tany_2

The property is leasehold but we do not know of the landlord and we have had the property since 1992. There was no mention of any one paying any rent in the deeds.

PasturesNew

When my parents bought their house in 1996 they also bought their freehold. The freehold bit was over the land at the back to their garage.
Then, about 2001, they suddenly started getting letters asking for money.
Turns out the company that sold them their freehold also managed to "accidentally" sell it in a bundle of leases in 2001. So the new "owner" of the freehold was asking for the money.
Soon sorted out though. Just an admin error.

rosysparkle

If the property is leasehold, someone must own the freehold. Your brother might well have to pay ground rent to the freeholder. Coppen Estates own (or manage) a lot of freeholds in Sheffield as far as I'm aware, it may not be a scam.

I can't say I disagree with the prevailing feeling on these reviews.

tobytops

We are leaseholders on a 1000 year lease for our house and pay ground rent of £5.25 per year. For 20 years we have paid and not had any additional demands from the leaseholder. Now it seems the lease has been sold to Compton Group and their insurance arm, Compton Insurance Services are insisting we can only insure the house with their chosen insurance company, Zurich. We are not willing to do this and it seems the only option is to buy out the lease. It appears these property companies are looking for any way to make money out of the householders and I can't help wondering what they will demand next. They want to charge £655 for this. I think it is unlikely that Zurich will give us a better deal than we have already and demands like this can only adversely affect the value of our property. Has anyone else had a letter insisting on this change of insurers. The deeds do state the leaseholder has the right to have an 'approved' insurer but it does seem unreasonable so long as the house is insured with a reputable company for the full amount which it is.

maninthestreet

£655 for buying out of a 1000 year lease sounds good to me.

clutton_2

re insisting on their insurers - read your original lease - what ever it says in there is what happens. i see no reason whatsoever why you should pay extra to insure with their choice.

I was not asked for ground rent for one of my properties until i had owned it for about 5 years, they then sent me an invoice for the £1.25p per year, plus £115.00 admin charges per year. They are entitled to demand up to 6 (or 5?) years worth of unpaid ground rents, (even if not demanded) but, are not entitled to one penny more than the amount listed in the original lease. I challenged them, and never got another demand for more than the £1.25 - AND i ask for a receipt - so given the time it takes them to write to me twice - they wont get rich out of my lease !!!!!

Richard_Webster

If the property is leasehold, someone must own the freehold. Your brother might well have to pay ground rent to the freeholder. Coppen Estates own (or manage) a lot of freeholds in Sheffield as far as I'm aware, it may not be a scam.

They also own freeholds elsewhere - we have some in Eastleigh!

nickigath

I have owned my property 10 years and used to receive a bill for the ground rent from coppen estates every year and always paid on time. A couple of years ago, the payments changed to quarterly. Instead of receiving a bill for just the quarterly amount, I received a bill including late payment charge. I have tried to keep up with quarterly payments, but without receiving a bill and because my ex partner (now at a different address) pays 1/2 I find it difficult to keep up to date.

I'm concerned about the legality of a late payment charge when no bill has been sent initially. I have lost track of what is due and am awaiting a bill as I cannot find a contact number for Coppen Estates. I'm wondering whether I could ignore the late payment penalty (which is more than the whole years ground rent). Does anyone know the legalities of late payment charges?

tbs624

nickigath wrote: »

I have owned my property 10 years and used to receive a bill for the ground rent from coppen estates every year and always paid on time. A couple of years ago, the payments changed to quarterly. Instead of receiving a bill for just the quarterly amount, I received a bill including late payment charge. I have tried to keep up with quarterly payments, but without receiving a bill and because my ex partner (now at a different address) pays 1/2 I find it difficult to keep up to date.

I'm concerned about the legality of a late payment charge when no bill has been sent initially. I have lost track of what is due and am awaiting a bill as I cannot find a contact number for Coppen Estates. I'm wondering whether I could ignore the late payment penalty (which is more than the whole years ground rent). Does anyone know the legalities of late payment charges?

You can only be asked to pay the GR in accordance with the leasehold terms in your deeds AFIAA: if they state clearly that it is to be paid in annual instalments then you are entitled to do just that. You say that you are aware that the payments changed a couple of years ago to quarterly - how was this change notified to you? My own experience was that they liked to try to change payments to fit with their own admin set up: a property that we owned up there several years ago had a GR that was due 6 months in arrears and 6 months in advance under the terms and they tried to change this (IIRC they operated from a room above a florist's shop)