Ground Rent Claim Advice

ryou4me

Hi

Bought a house back in September 2020.

Was sent a letter for the first time for collection of ground rent in Jan 2022 for Mar 2020 to Sep 2021.

Ground rent was requested for my property and 3 others - which I was unaware of at the time but my property registry confirms all 4 houses are on one. 

Anyway, fast forward to Aug 2024 and I was sent a letter before claim via email (unsure how they got my email but regardless)

I now received a claim form - I have acknowledged it on MCOL and I am intending to admit part of the claim - the ground rent only as I will be prepared to pay that.

I am not prepared to pay the interest, or court fee of £35.

My questions:-

• Should I fill in the part admission on MCOL or paper?
• Or should I contact the company who sent me the ground rent request initially to try and resolve?
• Or should I go online and pay the company for the ground rent
• Or other

Finally, is there anything I can do with regards to the ground rent for all4 houses being combined - can they be split or will they allow this? Is this common

eddddy

ryou4me said:

Ground rent was requested for my property and 3 others - which I was unaware of at the time but my property registry confirms all 4 houses are on one. 

So I assume you own a leasehold house.

If so, do you mean that your lease says you must collect ground rent from the 3 other property owners - and then send the ground rent for all 4 properties to the freeholder?

If so, it's very likely that you would be breaching your lease, if you don't do that.

ryou4me said:

I am not prepared to pay the interest, or court fee of £35.

The law explicitly says that if you breach your lease (e.g. by not paying ground rent when it is correctly demanded), the freeholder can charge you for the reasonable costs of enforcement.

• The court fee of £35 is almost certainly a reasonable cost of enforcement
• I'm less sure about interest - does your lease say that interest can be charged?

TBH, if those are the only fees the Freeholder is charging you, it sounds like you've got away lightly. Some freeholders instruct solicitors and/or debt collectors. And then you'd have to pay the solicitor's and/or debt collector's fees (which could be hundreds, or even thousands).


The standard advice is always

• Pay the full amount the freeholder is asking for - including all fees. But say you are paying under protest.

• After paying, you can challenge the amount / fees etc - if you want to

• If you withhold any amount - e.g. you withhold just £35 - in theory, the freeholder might still instruct solicitors / debt collectors to collect the outstanding £35. Then you might owe hundreds of pounds in fees.

lfc321

Why didn’t you pay the bill in Jan 2022 - or at the very  least investigate what the deal was with the other linked properties? 

As Edddy suggests, if the only penalty is £35 court fee + interest, you have got away pretty lightly. 

theartfullodger

Agreed, pay up (get evidence) and be wary in future....

chanz4

Its going to go against you by admitting, and you would be liable for the court fee and county court interest and yes I do these daily but in a different industry

ryou4me

lfc321 said:

Why didn’t you pay the bill in Jan 2022 - or at the very  least investigate what the deal was with the other linked properties? 

As Edddy suggests, if the only penalty is £35 court fee + interest, you have got away pretty lightly. 

Indeed…. Why oh why!

it’s one of those things and unfortunately I’ve landed where I am now. 

Guess I will pay the full amount including fees and interest. 

ryou4me

Thanks to those who responded with good advice

paid the claim amount and settled.