Ground Rent Query

Cath27

I've had my flat for a couple of years. Now that i am selling a query has cropped up. I've always paid the service charge when the demands have been sent through and the section for ground rent always said £nil. The buyers solicitor is now querying why i have never paid ground rent as the original lease says that this is payable. Where do i stand with this?

moneyistooshorttomention

Probably best if you quote us the exact wording of this...

Cath27

One of the pages says Application for Payment

this line:
Period Dec 201X - Dec 201Y
Description Yearly Ground rent in Advance
Charges £nil
Balance £nil

eddddy

Do you agree that the lease says ground rent is payable?

Is there a deed of variation which reduces the ground rent to nil? (This might happen if the lease was extended. Was the lease ever extended?)

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If it turns out that the ground rent is not £NIL then you only have to pay the ground rent once you have received a rent demand for it. Also the most the landlord can recover with a backdated demand is six years.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Its more likely your lease has been extended and the ground rent is now a peppercorn and for some reason the buyers solicitor is overlooking that.[/FONT]