We pay £2.50 twice a year for our ground rent but last week when we received the invoice for the first time it also had a £24 yearly account management fee on it.

Has anyone had this happen to them and if so did you have any success in telling them to fuck off?

I think it might count as being an administration charge and so they have to show why they think they have authority to charge it and where in our lease it says they can but I'm hoping there might be a 150ker on here who knows the score.

https://www.lease-advice.org/
 

May be of help.

Trouble is, a lot of the old land owners are selling to sharky type London based companies who take the piss with price increases & if you accidentally miss a payment they hit you hard.

The best thing i ever did was buy the freehold on my property a few years ago. The landowners offered it to me for £1250 (3 bed semi, decent sized plot) I said as it’s Christmas i could only afford £700, they said “Ok, it’s yours”

Simarc property management were the ones that owned mine. When we moved in they said our garage had been built without permission (it was actually built with the house as new) and they wanted money to grant permission. 

My solicitor wrote them a "get to fuck" letter and we never heard from them again, and we bought the lease since.

There have been a number of cases of rents being increased, and it confuses me as I thought that they were fixed once set when the property was new.

Check the website above or anything else you can find.

These management companies are frankly a bunch of crooks. Scamming folk unashamedly. 

Ground rent can only be increased if it says so on the original leasehold.

A lot of modern builders who do leasehold on new builds are sneaky fuckers and build in an increase every 5/10 years. However, I think (but not sure it’s happened) the government said they were going to stop this.

worth a Google.

It's on the link above!

One thing I've found recently is there is also Rent Charges which gets confused with Ground Rent.

My house is freehold but I pay £2.40 rent charge per year, this is until July 2037 when they extinguish. I'm looking at buying it out which is simply number of years left x rent charge plus any fees to the land registry. Makes it easier when selling.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rentcharges

 

 

 

 

I contacted lease-advice last week so will see what they say when they get back to me, seems a rum do that someone can invent a new charge that's almost 5 times the yearly amount and surely can't be correct.

 

Nobody has asked us for any ground rent for about 17 years, an old fella used to collet it but he died believe it or not 17 years ago

2 hours ago, Burndens Bogs said:

Trouble is, a lot of the old land owners are selling to sharky type London based companies who take the piss with price increases & if you accidentally miss a payment they hit you hard.

The best thing i ever did was buy the freehold on my property a few years ago. The landowners offered it to me for £1250 (3 bed semi, decent sized plot) I said as it’s Christmas i could only afford £700, they said “Ok, it’s yours”

 

Whats the advantages of doing this ??

I've never had to pay ground rent in either of the 3 properties that I've owned - is it generally something associated with older properties?

Why would anybody buy a house that isn't freehold?

14 minutes ago, Sweep said:

...why would ould anybody buy a caravan that doesn't have wheels so you can piss off and leave behind shit in carrier bags and empty butane gas bottles?

EFA

I bought my freehold but they wouldn't budge on the £870 they wanted.  I only bought it because it pissed me off that the land wasn't mine, not to save £15 a year.  I certainly wouldn't buy a new house now, gardening services fees etc GTF

12 minutes ago, Breightmet Boy said:

I bought my freehold but they wouldn't budge on the £870 they wanted.  I only bought it because it pissed me off that the land wasn't mine, not to save £15 a year.  I certainly wouldn't buy a new house now, gardening services fees etc GTF

When selling my mums house she let the years tick down 13k it cost to buy so we could sell on 

950 years left on mine at £7 a year, if I sell then I have to prove there's no debt. Pain in the arse.

3 hours ago, Burndens Bogs said:

Trouble is, a lot of the old land owners are selling to sharky type London based companies who take the piss with price increases & if you accidentally miss a payment they hit you hard.

The best thing i ever did was buy the freehold on my property a few years ago. The landowners offered it to me for £1250 (3 bed semi, decent sized plot) I said as it’s Christmas i could only afford £700, they said “Ok, it’s yours”

 

1 hour ago, Pablo said:

 

Whats the advantages of doing this ??

Obviously no ground rent to pay, plus you actually own the land that your house is stood on.

Also you don’t have to ask permission to make any structural changes to your house (other than local planning obvs)

I know someone who owned ahouse in Westhoughton (Leasehold) and developers were building 6 new houses at the bottom of the cul-de-sac where he lived & they just nicked part of his drive for access - all above board and in the smallprint of his leasehold agreement apparently.

Now that would piss me right off.

16 minutes ago, Burndens Bogs said:

 

Obviously no ground rent to pay, plus you actually own the land that your house is stood on.

Also you don’t have to ask permission to make any structural changes to your house (other than local planning obvs)

I know someone who owned ahouse in Westhoughton (Leasehold) and developers were building 6 new houses at the bottom of the cul-de-sac where he lived & they just nicked part of his drive for access - all above board and in the smallprint of his leasehold agreement apparently.

Now that would piss me right off.

 

Bloody hell, we want some work doing on ours and only though I would need planning perminsion from local council!!

Edited April 11, 20224 yr by Pablo

44 minutes ago, radcliffe white said:

When selling my mums house she let the years tick down 13k it cost to buy so we could sell on 

my ex bought her council house, she'd lived in it all her life, but only paid the rent for 28 years.  knocked a sizable % off the house, the 15yr mortgage was cheaper incl of insurance and boiler cover.

Oh, came with the freehold too

Edited April 11, 20224 yr by Breightmet Boy

20 minutes ago, Burndens Bogs said:

 

I know someone who owned ahouse in Westhoughton (Leasehold) and developers were building 6 new houses at the bottom of the cul-de-sac where he lived & they just nicked part of his drive for access - all above board and in the smallprint of his leasehold agreement apparently.

 

That's why I said earlier I don't know why anybody would buy a property that wasn't freehold, because if you don't own the land, then you might be a bit fucked if they want to "re-purpose" part of it

3 hours ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Simarc property management were the ones that owned mine. When we moved in they said our garage had been built without permission (it was actually built with the house as new) and they wanted money to grant permission. 

My solicitor wrote them a "get to fuck" letter and we never heard from them again, and we bought the lease since.

There have been a number of cases of rents being increased, and it confuses me as I thought that they were fixed once set when the property was new.

Check the website above or anything else you can find.

These management companies are frankly a bunch of crooks. Scamming folk unashamedly. 

Now they are a bunch of sharks (Simarc). I bought a new house last year and they wanted some ridiculous admin fee for transferring the lease over the me when the costs were clearly stated in the lease as being about a 4 quid.

My solicitor advised me to send them the amount as stated in the lease and have done with it. I believe they also charge daft admin fees for late rent, quoting for the purchase of the freehold, alterations/permission to alter etc.

I'm half expecting a letter off them soon as I was a few days late with my ground rent payment as I was on holiday when it became due.

pay £32.50 to Simarc twice a year

one of the payments didn't go through for some reasons a few years ago

next thing I've got a debt company on my case

no warnings or anything, soon as the payment didn't go through it was straight over to the collectors

cunts

anyway, that's for a new build from 2004

I've got no idea what ground rent is or why I have to pay it, I don't even know what leasehold means if I'm perfectly honest, I can't be arsed with all that small print shite

I just know it's a twice annual fee I have to pay

2 hours ago, athywhite1958 said:

Nobody has asked us for any ground rent for about 17 years, an old fella used to collet it but he died believe it or not 17 years ago

Did you bump him off. That’s how I’ve read it ha.

2 hours ago, Sweep said:

I've never had to pay ground rent in either of the 3 properties that I've owned - is it generally something associated with older properties?

Why would anybody buy a house that isn't freehold?

Not sure it’s older houses. Had ground rent on last one and had to pay quite a bit as last person never paid it plus legal fees. 
 

Live in an old house now and no ground rent on this thank fuck. It’s a con.

Lad I was acquainted with many years ago had one of these companies who bought the freeholds from the developers and charged ground rents. 
 

He sold it in the End to a pension fund they paid him somewhere in the region of 33m for it. He was at the time 35ish. Clever guy with a lot of foresight clearly. 

2 hours ago, Sweep said:

That's why I said earlier I don't know why anybody would buy a property that wasn't freehold, because if you don't own the land, then you might be a bit fucked if they want to "re-purpose" part of it

They can't just do that. Only stuff that's written in the agreement. 

Which usually extends to a fee to get their permission. 

That said, I don't think they have any say over anything done within permitted development, but don't know either way for sure.

This fucking around with ground rents and changes seems to be a new phenomenon: it just means folk need to read carefully before they buy. I would imagine your solicitor should advise on that.

Nothing unusual in general about buying a leasehold property- especially one built some time ago, as they don't have big payments.

Another worry is, these companies that buy leaseholds from developers - if they then decide to sell, it could end up in the hands of anyone.

The majority of houses in Bolton are freehold. The majority of houses in Wigan are leasehold.

Edited April 11, 20224 yr by Burndens Bogs