Transfer of Ground Rent and Grounds Maintenance

leeleec78

Part Ex’d with a developer 6 months ago. Old house was leasehold and had an annual grounds service charge. Both of which we’re due a rebate on about £100.
This week started getting demands for late payment of ground rent. Ground rent company initially said they’d cancel all invoices until hearing from solicitors but are now saying they’ve not received anything so will start billing again.
My solicitor is saying it’s a hold up with the developer as they’ve sold our old house on so they can’t do anything.
Anyone had anything similar? Any ideas how I can get this resolved?

eddddy

The lease almost certainly says that the new owner must serve a "notice of assignment" to the management company and/or freeholder - to give them details of the new owner.

So it sounds like one of the following has happened:

• 1) The new owner failed to serve notice(s) of assignment
• 2) The new owner served notice(s) of assignment - but the freeholder and/or management company lost them
• 3) The new owner served notice(s) of assignment - but didn't pay the correct fee, so the freeholder and/or management company is refusing to process them
• 
  

Option 1 is unlikely  - it's normally the buyer's solicitor who does this, on behalf of the buyer. A solicitor is unlikely to 'forget' to do this.

If service charges and/or ground rent bills are not being paid, then the law allows late fees, solicitor's fees, debt collector's fees, etc to be added to the bill. (These could amount to thousands of pounds.)

Ultimately, the lease can probably be forfeited (i.e. the house be repossessed) if the fees aren't paid.



So maybe consider contacting the new owners to say something like...

I am a previous owner of your house. The freeholder and/or management company have contacted me to say that they haven't received your Notice of Assignment. As a result, you have not been receiving your service charge bills and ground rent bills, and they are not being paid.

This might result in late fees, solicitor's fees and debt collector's fees being added to the bills.

Ultimately, the courts might order that your lease be forfeited and your house be repossessed.

So I suggest that you urgently contact your solicitor, the freeholder and the management company to get this resolved.