No ground rent receipt

SueTheBlue

Hi, could anyone offer me some advice?  I am close to completing on the sale of my house.  My buyers solicitor is now asking for a receipt for my last ground rent payment, but I don't have one, just a copy of the cheque I sent to pay it and a copy of the rent demand.
Where do I go from here?
Thanks

Sue

greatcrested

send a copy of both.

and/or ask freeholder for receipt.

davidmcn

SueTheBlue said:

Hi, could anyone offer me some advice?  I am close to completing on the sale of my house.  My buyers solicitor is now asking for a receipt for my last ground rent payment, but I don't have one, just a copy of the cheque I sent to pay it and a copy of the rent demand.
Where do I go from here?

You tell your solicitor what you've told us. 

eddddy

How much is the ground rent? Is it a large enough amount to make you or the buyer walk away, if it can't be proven?

Or is it over £250 outside London, or over £1000 in London?

SueTheBlue

eddddy said:

How much is the ground rent? Is it a large enough amount to make you or the buyer walk away, if it can't be proven?

Or is it over £250 outside London, or over £1000 in London?

It's £8 per year, and I'm outside London.  I have now emailed the company who I pay the rent to, to ask if they can forward me a receipt. Fingers crossed.

greatcrested

So the sale is going to collapse because of...... £8?

NameUnavailable

The solicitor should have confirmation that ground rent is up to date as part of their lease pack supplied by the management company or freeholder. They aren't under any obligation to provide receipts so if you don't get a quick response just tell the solicitors that you have paid up to date.

Alternatively you could provide a copy of the cheque and a corresponding bank statement to show it had been cashed.

eddddy

NameUnavailable said:

The solicitor should have confirmation that ground rent is up to date as part of their lease pack supplied by the management company or freeholder. 

It could be because the management pack was obtained some time ago, and ground rent has become due since

For example, the management pack was prepared in December 2020, and the £8 ground rent was due on 1st Jan 2021.

So rather than requesting a new management pack or whatever, the buyer's solicitor would be happy with proof of payment of the £8. But if proof can't be provided, I guess the OP could just agree to a deduction of £8 from the completion money.

(Or failing that, send a pro-forma receipt for the freeholder to sign, with a stamped addressed envelope to send it back to you - and hope that the freeholder can be bothered to scribble a signature on the receipt, and put in the envelope you provided, and put the envelope in a post box.

Or even just send an email asking the freeholder to reply confirming receipt of the £8 ground rent.)

SueTheBlue

Update.  Managed to get a receipt from the company managing the ground rent, and have forwarded it to the solicitor, so fingers crossed that's it now.  Thanks for all your replies and advice.

Sue