Deed of Variation

canyon2026

Hi,

I was trying to sell my Mothers Flat to help pay for her Care Home Costs but the Sale fell through last minute as their Solicitor requested a Deed Of Variation with a forfeiture clause. The Landlord came back with a figure of £15000 plus £1200+VAT in Legal Fees. This is on top of around £600 I had to pay for the Landlord to consider the request. Now the Estate Agent doesn't want to advertise the property as many Buyers will request a DoV so now I'm unable to sell it.

I contacted a company for help via CAB and they suggested trying to negotiate with the Landlord but they have said today it was a 'fair' price in their view. My only alternative is to try and get a Lease Extension without a Grount Rent Increase (unlikely) or try and serve a Section 42 Notice but this seems complicated and could be even more expensive and time consuming.

Not sure what to do now.

eddddy

In simple terms, a "Deed of Variation" means a "change to the lease". What kind of change to the lease were you being asked for? What is the problem with the lease as it stands?

Based on some of your comments, it sounds like it's related to an old problem with the ground rent being over £250 (or over £1000 in London). But that issue should now be fixed by new legislation - so no deed of variation should be required.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82022104#Comment_82022104

If the reason for the variation is to remove an escalating ground rent, then important to point out that although these are now banned for new leases, no primary legislation has yet been enacted addressing exsisting leases.

Indeed per the article below, the current timetable for enactment pushes the matter into 2028 for possible legislation with the strong probability of affected freeholders challenging the change along the way.

Therefore no immediate relief for leaseholders in this respect.

https://www.slaughterandmay.com/insights/new-insights/the-end-of-the-lease-as-we-know-it/

canyon2026

Hi, This was to stop Ground Rent at £300 doubling after 25 years and to add a forfeiture clause.

No all parts of the new Legislation are current in force so currently you do still have to pay for a DoV.

Not really sure that I have any options.

ExEstateAgent

At £300 ground rent it's already at the point where forfeiture for non payment of GR could be invoked (applies for GR over £250).

Your best option is to consider a formal lease extension which will zero the GR. Depends on the cost but there are some online calculators to give you an idea. The other option is to sell at a lower price/at auction and someone can sort the lease extension out later.

eddddy

canyon2026 said

Hi, This was to stop Ground Rent at £300 doubling after 25 years and to add a forfeiture clause.

No all parts of the new Legislation are current in force so currently you do still have to pay for a DoV.

Not really sure that I have any options.

I think you're confusing 2 or more different issues.

When you say a "forfeiture clause", I guess you're referring to a DoV removing the right for the landlord to evict a leaseholder for non-payment of ground rent over £250 using Ground 8 of Section 8 of Housing Act?

If so, legislation removed that problem on 27th December 2025.

So ground rent of £300 doubling every 25 years should not be a problem for mortgage lenders any more - no DoV or indemnity insurance should be required.

Unless there is an issue with ground rent as a percentage of property value. Some lenders might set limits like ground rent cannot be more than 0.1% or 0.2% of property value.

But some buyers might 'prefer' not to have £300 ground rent doubling every 25 years - but that's a personal preference, rather than something mandated by mortgage lenders. (Unless there is an issue with ground rent as a percentage of property value. )

eddddy

ExEstateAgent said

At £300 ground rent it's already at the point where forfeiture for non payment of GR could be invoked (applies for GR over £250).

As mentioned above, that issue disappeared on 27th December 2025.

See: https://theindependentlandlord.com/ast-trap/

canyon2026

I believe that's only covering new Leases and the act does not cover existing Leases just yet though it is not clear.

user1977

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82024669#Comment_82024669

No, it is clear and it covers all leases, as explained in the article linked above.

canyon2026

Okay - interesting. So are you saying that the worry that my Buyer would have had with the doubling of the Ground Rent and that leading to a possible forfeiture in the future was removed at the end of the last year.

Is there no way that a Landlord can force forfeiture for non-payment with Leaseholders?

eddddy

canyon2026 said

Okay - interesting. So are you saying that the worry that my Buyer would have had with the doubling of the Ground Rent and that leading to a possible forfeiture in the future was removed at the end of the last year.

You've misunderstood.

The "forfeiture risk" was because the ground rent was over £250 per year.

But you seemed to be saying there were 2 problems that your buyer wanted addressed by a DoV:

• 1) The forfeiture risk
• 2) The £300 ground rent doubling every 25 years

So we've covered the forfeiture risk, but you haven't explained why the £300 ground rent doubling was a problem for your buyer.

Is it because the ground rent is more than 0.1% of market value, or something else?

How much was the flat being sold for?