Freehold house sale with a service charge causing issues

BonaDea

The fee you pay for upkeep of grounds etc in this scenario (freehold house on managed estate) is an estate management charge, not a service charge.  A 'rentcharge' is not a fee but a legal instrument to secure payment of the estate management charge.  'Charge' in this term has the same meaning as when a mortgagor places a 'charge' on property deeds.  

eddddy

YoungBlueEyes said:

Could you ask the builders' legal team to send you an email stating that it's a service charge not a rent charge? You then send that to your sol who forwards it to your buyers sol. 

I'm not sure it's that clear cut.

The builder's legal team might send an email saying something like...

• In our opinion, a court would not decide that this service charge is a rentcharge

But the buyer's solicitor might still say something like...

• In my opinion, there's a possibility that a court might decide that this service charge is a rentcharge

And the buyer's solicitor would report that to the buyer's mortgage lender. And so the buyer's mortgage lender would refuse to lend.

Homeseller1988

So an update on this. 
Persimmon sent my side an email stating that there is no rent charge and so a deed of variation is not necessary.
The buyers lender still won't accept this from Persimmon and have said we have to get a deed of variation.
Persimmon are yet to confirm if it's something they will do, which is very frustrating. If they refuse then my sale will fall through.
We are currently waiting for their senior legal team to confirm if they will allow this or not.
Persimmon have wasted time and taken 2 months to respond to initial emails from both solicitors, so this could have been resolved some time ago if they had responded earlier as requested in the process. Very annoyed at the moment!

HelpfulLittleHelper

badger09 said:

HelpfulLittleHelper said:

If there is reference to rent charge in the deeds, the buyers could look at another bank that is willing to accept this and still give a mortgage. Some don't unless you get a deed of variation, which is unlikely to be given as most management companies don't as we found out while buying our house.
So for example Yorkshire, Barclays and I'm sure there will be plenty more just flat out refuse it AFTER you go through all the hassle of the application despite mentioning the rent charge at the start, wasting a lot of time with you having all the meetings to go over all the information, the ID checks etc. Very frustrating and I hope you don't have to deal with that.
Eventually we found that Santander would give a mortgage without this deed of variation so might be worth looking at them? Or using a mortgage broker who might be able to find some other options for your particular purchase.

BIB
OP is selling, not buying. 

Still worth sharing that via estate agent to the buyers to try a different mortgage company or broker.