Paying service charge and rent on an inherited shared ownership flat

rvrouill

Hi,
Does anyone have experience of inheriting a shared ownership property with any housing group (in this case housing 21) and having to take on the responsibility of maintaining rent and service charge payments even though the property is vacant? Housing 21 has nothing to cover this on their website.

Thanks

da_rule

The lease with the terms for the rental portion of the property will bind successors in title. This includes the rent and the service charge. It is very unlikely that there will be a clause allowing the suspension of payments even though the property is empty.

The question becomes, who is liable. If you have inherited it then it's you, if it has been transferred to you for you to deal with it as executor then it's the estate.

Something worth noting, if you have inherited the house (the freehold and leasehold elements) and you do not meet the housing associations criteria for shared ownership (already own another property, earn too much, don't work locally etc) then they can take steps to forfeit the lease.

It would also be worth checking whether the lease element (and any home insurance policies in place) have any clauses relating to how long the property can be left unoccupied.