Advice on Ground Rent issue needed

[Manchester]

Hi all,

Just wanted to run something past you guys.

I bought my house in Feb 2016.  Previous owner had post redirected for a year.  The second-year we passed post onto them through a neighbour remained in contact with them.  I've stopped doing this out of principle now.  It's been nearly 4 years and I'm not happy to risk fraudulent activity against my address because these people are too lazy to update their details.

Since then, I've been writing 'no longer at address, return to sender' on their post and reposting it. 

Over the past few months, we've been receiving more and more mail for the previous owner, and as curiosity has got the better of me, I've opened it (don't judge me - if they're lazy enough to not change the address after nearly 4 years, it's either suspicious or not important).

The post is in regards to our ground rent for the leasehold.  The company is contacting the previous owners to demand ground rent + some admin/late payment fees of around £100. 

What should I do?  Should I just continue to return all post to senders or contact the company directly and try and sort it out?  I'm obviously not happy paying admin fees for something that I've been unaware about.  But if I call the company and let them know I've opened their post, it may open up a can of worms? 

Cheers.

[ExitViaTheCashRamp]

Call them and say you opened in error (not checking the name on the envelope first). They may want proof you are the new leaseholder but probably worth it in case they end up sending debt collectors to your door where you then have to prove it to them anyway (or ignore them too and ends up become evermore antagonistic).

 However, if you want a better opinion - I would suggest use money saving experts forum, those folk really know their stuff.

[UK Dancer]

Sorry to contradict you, Exit, but actually the most effective response is: contact your conveyancer from when you bought the house. They are the one that was responsible for notifying the leaseholder and sorting any forms/fees required to change the name on the leasehold. You want to ask them for proof that they actually did this so you can take it to the company concerned to prove that you requested a change of name and it's not your fault that you've not been getting their ground rent demands.

This way there's two scenarios:

• The conveyancer didn't actually do their job, in which case you can push them to absorb any and all fees relating to the transfer they didn't do, as well as the late payment fees, then you'll need to pay any ground rent you've not paid to date.
• The conveyancer did do their job and it's the company that didn't update their records, in which case you tell them that since they haven't actually invoiced you for the ground rent as yet, it's not actually a valid debt you owe, so you can't be late. They do have the right to bill you for the last four years' worth of ground rent in one go now, but you can definitely reject all fees outside of this, plus you can request a spread payment plan for that four years of rent if necessary.

It's also worth observing that if there's any service charge element involved, you can refuse to pay anything that's more than 18 months old, as service charges must be billed to you within 18 months of the cost being incurred. Since the invoices have been going to the old owners, they haven't legally invoiced you, so it's not legal for them to try and catch up now.

Give me a shout if you have any other queries or if anything doesn't make sense.

[Manchester]

Sorry to contradict you, Exit, but actually the most effective response is: contact your conveyancer from when you bought the house. They are the one that was responsible for notifying the leaseholder and sorting any forms/fees required to change the name on the leasehold. You want to ask them for proof that they actually did this so you can take it to the company concerned to prove that you requested a change of name and it's not your fault that you've not been getting their ground rent demands.

This way there's two scenarios:

• The conveyancer didn't actually do their job, in which case you can push them to absorb any and all fees relating to the transfer they didn't do, as well as the late payment fees, then you'll need to pay any ground rent you've not paid to date.
• The conveyancer did do their job and it's the company that didn't update their records, in which case you tell them that since they haven't actually invoiced you for the ground rent as yet, it's not actually a valid debt you owe, so you can't be late. They do have the right to bill you for the last four years' worth of ground rent in one go now, but you can definitely reject all fees outside of this, plus you can request a spread payment plan for that four years of rent if necessary.

It's also worth observing that if there's any service charge element involved, you can refuse to pay anything that's more than 18 months old, as service charges must be billed to you within 18 months of the cost being incurred. Since the invoices have been going to the old owners, they haven't legally invoiced you, so it's not legal for them to try and catch up now.

Give me a shout if you have any other queries or if anything doesn't make sense.

Thanks for the advice, I'll get in touch with our conveyancer. :)

[UK Dancer]

If there's any pushback/you're unsure how to make an argument, let me know, I used to work in finance for a firm with a sizable ground rent portfolio so I've got a fair amount of context/background info to work from on these.

[vand]

When is a freehold not a freehold?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50519066

[UK Dancer]

Hope this all got sorted ok, Manchester?

[Manchester]

Thanks for checking on this @UK Dancer

It's still ongoing, unfortunately.  At the moment it's with the conveyancer.  They've told us to forward any communications onto them.  But that's been ongoing now for a few months which is really frustrating.  I keep chasing them up and get no response.

Fortunately, the threatening emails have subsided though.

[UK Dancer]

Ah that's infuriating that it's not been sorted, but at least the emails have stopped. If you want any more detailed advice you'd prefer not to be public please feel free to PM me.