Please help ground rent issue

Tom99

snilloct1957 wrote: »

Shouldn't the seller's solicitor have notified the buyer's solicitor about the change in ground rent? Maybe he was negligent? Just saying...

The OP's solicitor should not have exchanges contracts without seeing the completed deed of variation.
What date were contracts exchanged?

Andytree

* or send it to me

Andytree

Deed of variation - 26 September

Contracts were exchanged - 3 October

I don’t believe the solicitor ever checked or saw the deed of variation and consequently, it was never sent to me.

[Deleted User]

Bear in mind though, that the costs of such a claim could easily outweigh the extra cost you weren't expecting. It isn't right that this has happened but the benefit is you have a longer lease. As you say, £100 extra a year is not a great deal, nor is £250 after 25 years. Its just not what you were expecting. If it was doubling every ten years, you might have a resale problem but not at the level your ground rent is at doubling every 25 years.

Unfortunately you can't go back and renegotiate. I would assume the previous owner didn't really care what level the ground rent was set at because he wouldn't be paying it. He just wanted to reduce his costs for the new lease (up front money).

Tom99

Andytree wrote: »

Deed of variation - 26 September
Contracts were exchanged - 3 October
I don’t believe the solicitor ever checked or saw the deed of variation and consequently, it was never sent to me.

They should have seen and checked it, how else can they hope to advise you, the rent could have been £500.

Fire_Fox

Andytree wrote: »

Thank you for your answers.

I did not know and was not made aware (and possibly neither was my solicitor) that as part of the extension the new ground rent arrangements were agreed.

Had I known this, I would not have completed.

Andytree wrote: »

Also, just to add.

I wanted the lease extension but did not want it to come with ground rent which doubles. I was not told about this and would not have agreed to the purchase had I known.

The vendor obviously cut their costs by agreeing to the increase in ground rent, knowing it would fall on the purchaser.

I’m fairly sure my solicitor was also not told about this.

Andytree wrote: »

I was not aware that the ground rent had been changed as part of the transaction to extend the lease before I completed.

I’ve checked every single email and nothing about this was mentioned.

Two days before exchange my solicitor said the ground rent was the £50 from the original lease. I can only assume the solicitor had not seen any variation as well at the time of completion.

Andytree wrote: »

Thanks Tom.

So I guess given that my solicitor did not check the deed of variation or someone it to me, my only option is down the negligence route?

Andytree wrote: »

Deed of variation - 26 September

Contracts were exchanged - 3 October

I don’t believe the solicitor ever checked or saw the deed of variation and consequently, it was never sent to me.

Welcome to MSE.

Too many ifs, buts and maybes.

Nobody can advise you what to do next until you know definitively where you are now. Formally query this (not a complaint as yet) with your solicitor.

BMilo1

Wow, this sounds very similar to what I've been going through recently!
I was aware of our lease being extended but not made aware of the effect of the new terms being added in. I wonder if your freeholder/solicitor is the same one as me as our property is in Sussex. We purchased 4 years ago and was made aware 2 years ago that our property is unsellable (unmortgageable) due to the ground rent terms - £175 per year doubling every 15 years, the length of the lease is 148 years. Have lost 2 buyers and a lot of money! We are going down the professional negligence route and have been given a good chance of claiming back our losses. We are just entering into a Statutory Lease Extension where the costs will be around £20,000 so that we are able to move.