Formnext ltd ground rent request

dannyjebb

We have lived in our house for nearly 4 years, and today received a letter from a company called formnext ltd stating that there is an arrears of rent charges of £80 for the 4 years.
When we bought the house I explicitly asked the solicitor if there was any ground rent etc to pay or was it freehold. All info on the land registry says the house is freehold.
The letter says 'regrettably your solicitor failed to inform us of you buying the property.
Then there is just an invoice with bank details on.
I was under the impression that Freehold means we own the house and the land and don't pay any ground rent charges?
Can anyone offer any advice?
Regards
Danny

daveyjp

You need to understand the terminology.  A rent charge isn't a ground rent.

A rent charge can apply to freeholds, usually when a third party with no interest in your property has some responibility for managing areas of the estate.

The rent charge is the draconian method of securing the debt in the event of a default.

NameUnavailable

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rentcharges

nyermen

Don't hesitate, if this is a valid estate rent charge, then they're already entitled to an (automatic?) granting of a lease of something like 99 years on your property, which will render it unsaleable.
That said, £20 a year sounds very low for an estate rent charge, sounds more like a peppercorn rent.

dimbo61

Pick up the phone and call your solicitor now while they are still open

dimbo61

How old is the property ? 
What part of the country ?
I bought a Victorian terrace house from a relative.
They informed me and had all the old receipts that they paid something like £1.50 ground rent each year but they had not received a demand for a couple of years before selling to us.
Low and behold 5 years later we get a rent demand from people we had never heard of asking for back ground rent.
It was a freehold house but all the house deeds have this ground rent information.
We ended up paying for the arrears and future payments to take it upto 2035 when the rent charge runs out.
Paid about £85 so worth the risk.
I know where they live 😊

dannyjebb

dimbo61 said:

How old is the property ? 
What part of the country ?
I bought a Victorian terrace house from a relative.
They informed me and had all the old receipts that they paid something like £1.50 ground rent each year but they had not received a demand for a couple of years before selling to us.
Low and behold 5 years later we get a rent demand from people we had never heard of asking for back ground rent.
It was a freehold house but all the house deeds have this ground rent information.
We ended up paying for the arrears and future payments to take it upto 2035 when the rent charge runs out.
Paid about £85 so worth the risk.
I know where they live 😊

It was built early 1970.
Stalybridge in Cheshire
I spoke to the solicitors who are going to call back their records from storage. They said the previous owners bought an insurance policy which covered arrears if anyone every came and asked for it. Looking at the letter we received it doesnt look like anyone paid the ground rent since about 2001 but they are only asking for arrears since 2017 when we bought it. 
I tried to call the company but no answer. Presume they must be closed for xmas. Thanks for you reply

dannyjebb

nyermen said:

Don't hesitate, if this is a valid estate rent charge, then they're already entitled to an (automatic?) granting of a lease of something like 99 years on your property, which will render it unsaleable.
That said, £20 a year sounds very low for an estate rent charge, sounds more like a peppercorn rent.

From what I have read, this isn't the newer type of leases which are ground rent. This is an older style rent charge which was put on an area of land when it was sold. I presume when the land our estate (approx 100 houses) was built on was sold. I have spoken to the solicitors who are going to recall their file on the sale. On reading the previously correspondence with our solicitor this is a rent charge and not a ground rent.
Thanks