Leaseholder taking the michael

[rebel rebel]

So we own our flat but there's a small ground rent that needs paying every year. Just a small amount £150.

Today we get a letter saying they have surveyed the grounds and decided that's too cheap and it will now be £250.

But here's the thing, they are charging us £72 for the survey they did last week apparently. But we never had anyone come round and there's no access to the back garden. So already I was suspicious, and then the picture they enclosed to illustrate the fact they completed the survey last week, has my old front door that was replaced in April, and a tree that was cut down over 2 years ago! They took the picture from instantstreetview.com!

It's not about the money, its the principal of them blatantly lying to us.

What are my grounds for refusing to pay?

 

[rebel rebel]

Yeah I think that's what I'll do. I need to speak to the upstairs flat first see if they received the same letter. Might be easier to complain together.

There's around 200 separate flats and houses down my street. So this is quite the shakedown.

 

[rebel rebel]

Worth digging out your docs. I owned a leasehold flat and there was a timeline for ground rent increases, like after 25 or 50 years and then same period again until the next increase and the payments already laid out, £50 for first 25 years then £100 for the next 25 years, or something like that, they couldn't raise it willy nilly .

Thanks, I'll have to dig the deeds out, they're kept somewhere else. I would like to know the criteria for the raise, its not like they do anything for the money.

 

[rebel rebel]

Extra costs driven by Brexit

More than likely is the fat cats using Brexit as an excuse to raise it.

 

[rebel rebel]

I thought paying for the survey sounded dodgy. We paid the fees when we extended the lease 3 years ago. So they shouldn't be charging us now.

I'm gonna investigate this, thanks for the info.

 

[rebel rebel]

Don't withhold payment, that will get you onto worse trouble

Yeah good point, probably a clause where they come and possess the home.

I spoke with some neighbours and they got the same letter with a picture lifted from the internet.

Also found out the home is 100 years old next year, so I'm thinking this has something to do with the raise.

 

[rebel rebel]

Ok so now I have some more info. The raise is to do with the insurance, they say because the home has increased in value so has the insurance.

So I guess that's not so bad. We would like to sell in the next 5 years, as we have a fully extended lease, and would prefer not to pay to extend again in the future.

 

[rebel rebel]

So nothing to do with ground rent

From what I can gather, and I still haven't seen the letter yet. The ground rent and liability insurance are paid together. And after a survey they deduced the insurance part of this was too low because the property value has risen.

 

[rebel rebel]

They may be paid together but they are entirely different.

Ground rent cannot be increased unilaterally against the terms of your lease.

Insurance can go up but it still has to match the actual cost of the policy.

Yeah it sounds like its only the insurance part that has gone up. They enclosed a total estimated property value of my flat and the upstairs property. It was originally a 3 story house that was converted into a ground floor flat (mine) and a 2 story apartment above.

I'm going to blame the next door flat being sold for almost double what we paid for ours 4 years ago. Still can't work out how that happened, it didn't even have double glazing.

 

[rebel rebel]

But if you've fully extended the lease under the 2002 Act, there would be no ground - I am confused...

No ground? Can you explain what you mean please? Do you mean no grounds for a raise in the yearly ground rent payment?

 

[rebel rebel]

True but not always the case.

Seems your buildings insurance has gone up and not the ground rent yes?

That seems to be the case yes.

 

[rebel rebel]

Seems legit then really

Yeah, my only concern now is the fact they say they took a picture recently, but its blatantly from street view.

 

[rebel rebel]

True but if the property literally hasn’t changed then a desktop survey is perfectly legitimate too I guess. Whether someone physically inspected the property or not, the outcome would be the same - probably

You're right nothings changed, but they made a point of saying they came and did a survey 2 weeks ago, here's a photo to prove it. And the photo proves they never came.

 

[rebel rebel]

Sorry, typing fail. No ground rent. There is no exception to this, it's written in Statute. If you've renewed under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 then you have no ground rent. If your freeholder is suggesting otherwise, then they are simply wrong...

Could you link me to the paragraph that says this. We maxed out the lease about 3 months after we bought the flat. And have been paying £150 a year since then.

 

[rebel rebel]

We extended the lease to the maximum but it wasn't that low to begin with. So it definitely didn't add 90 years to it.