Responsible for collecting neighbours ground rent?

Lily_123

Hello, just had a second viewing of a Victorian 2 bed terrace we are thinking of putting an offer in for. The property is leasehold with a long lease. Ground rent is about £1.25 per year but the vendor advised he is responsible for collecting the ground rent for the other 4 properties in the row. Before I could ask more questions around this the estate agent who was also with us said it was quite a normal set up and not a big deal. I didn’t want to grill anyone at that point but am looking for some advice around this if possible?

Yes it’s not a lot of money and I’ve even read some people just pay it all themselves to save the bother of asking neighbours but what if I didn’t want to pay on behalf of the neighbours and they refused to pay it to me? Am I liable for it because they refused to pay it? What if I buy the freehold (not saying I would nessesarily because assuming the rent clause is solid there’s an argument to not bother) but if I did would I still have to collect the neighbours? Am I able to purchase the property but ask my solicitors to speak to the landlord and remove this responsibly from me before sale completes?

Does anyone have this set up for their ground rent collection who could share their experience?

Thank you in advance

eddddy

Faye_123 wrote: »

Am I able to purchase the property but ask my solicitors to speak to the landlord and remove this responsibly from me before sale completes?

You can ask your solicitor to speak to the landlord, and maybe offer them some cash to vary the lease and remove the ground rent clause.

The freeholder may or may not agree. However, the legal costs for a deed of variation might be a few hundred or more.


FWIW, you only have to pay the ground rent if it's demanded (in the correct format). Does the landlord bother sending out a letter each year to demand £6.25?

(If a letter does arrive, you should pay it promptly, as the landlord may be able to charge you 'admin fees' if it's late - which might be much higher than the ground rent.)

moneyistooshorttomention

Hardly a normal set-up imo.

I would tend to ask for absolute cast-iron written proof that the ground rent would only ever be this amount - no inflation rises/no other rises.

If I had a categoric guarantee of that (and had run it past my solicitor for anything dicey about it) - and they'd approved it and there couldn't be any rise in it

= I'd go ahead for the sake of just paying that few quid myself. I cba to fetch an amount as tiny as that from the neighbours and I'd just pay it myself and wait for inflation to reduce it to an even lower level than it is currently.

I would query if the possibility was there for me to "just buy it out" for all the properties concerned for a minimal sum of money - so I could just forget about it totally. But I wouldnt let it unduly worry me if this "obligation" stayed put - provided there could never be any rises in amount expected.

Giddypip

My mum has the 'head lease' for a few of the houses in her row, cost never goes up (she's been there 40+ years), I think it is a 999 year lease. Similar cost to yours, never had a problem collecting money from the other houses as far as I know.

G_M

It's just something to check.


See what the lease says;
see what formalanswers you get to the standard enquiries.
See what your conveyancer says.


But really - whatever the answers it's not something to worry about and certainly not something to make you reconsider your purchase.


Worst that can happen? You end up paying a few quid every year. If that's beyond you, you should pull out and stay in rented.

Slithery

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Hardly a normal set-up imo

Quite normal in some properties.