Ground rent

cdbe11

The bloke I pay ground rent to (house with 900yr lease) has sent me a demand for 6 years - I don't have a problem with that, he's sporadic with his invoicing. However, he's decided to increase it from £3.5 to £4 - like it's some kind of corner shop!

In the lease it says £3 2s 6d so I think he's even robbed me on converting that to decimal - I get £3.13!

Any thoughts?

eddddy

Based on what you say, you could probably get away with paying £18.75, instead of £24 - if you're sure that's what your lease says.


But as a general comment, if you underpay ground rent, the freeholder can start adding 'late fees' - so the debt could mount up.

So you could decide to pay the extra £5.25 (once every six years) just to avoid any scope for future arguments about late fees - or you could stand firm and refuse to pay the extra £5.25, if you prefer.

saajan_12

Only concern is since those are past dated years, you probably should have already paid this without waiting for an invoice. So may be don't make a fuss this time, and from next year pay the correct amount only immediately on the due date per the lease. 

Edit: I'm totally wrong as pointed out by eddddy

eddddy

saajan_12 said:

Only concern is since those are past dated years, you probably should have already paid this without waiting for an invoice. So may be don't make a fuss this time, and from next year pay the correct amount only immediately on the due date per the lease. 

That's not correct advice.

The law specifically states that ground rent is not payable until/unless it is correctly demanded. e.g. by an invoice (or notice) being sent.

saajan_12

eddddy said:

saajan_12 said:

Only concern is since those are past dated years, you probably should have already paid this without waiting for an invoice. So may be don't make a fuss this time, and from next year pay the correct amount only immediately on the due date per the lease. 

That's not correct advice.

The law specifically states that ground rent is not payable until/unless it is correctly demanded. e.g. by an invoice (or notice) being sent.

Thanks for the correction, I incorrectly assumed it was ultimately a rental contract similar to any other lease. Seems bizarre that the lease agreement can't serve as the demand for payment! 

I've striked through my comment to avoid confusion but left it there for clarity of the chain.