Ground rent woes

m0bov

Do a statutory lease extension on peppercorn ground rent.

Crashy_Time

Meph79 said:

So it turns out we have a unmortgageable  house, only discovering this when our lender of 13 years (Santander) refused to give our buyer a mortgage due to a ground rent clause that has always been there. 

Our ground rent clause is confusing to say the least, referring to the value never being more than £1 less of the figure specified in the rent act and linked legislation, but ignoring that (as everyone seems to do) our rent appears to double every 20 years. We started on £200 and it is due to rise in 7 years. 

Sadly when we challenged the clause when we first bought the property the conveyancer, recommended by the developer, advised it was “standard and perfectly satisfactory” and that we should be able to buy the freehold for a few thousand - yeah not likely! 

We passed on details of the comments we’d had to the Estate Agent when we had the offer and accepted a £7.5k reduction in price. Unfortunately 4 months into the sale  (don’t get me started on NBM law!) it was flagged as an issue and we’ve now been told it will take 3 months to sort a deed of variation to align with RPI. 

This seems excessively long, is that standard given all the RPI DoVs that must be happening? 

Also, why are lenders stepping outside of the CMA’s pledge? This covers those who have a ground doubling more frequently than 20 years but our freeholder wouldn’t even have a conversation with us until there was proof of a lender’s rejection because ours doubles every 20 years. 

Also, does anyone have experience with negligence claims for the original conveyancer? We have all the original emails and letters. 

Thanks! 

Cash buyer and decent price discount to sweeten the deal?