• Ground Rent

    By Guest on 08th Jan 2014

    Hello, where I live (we own our flat) the estate has landlords of which we pay ground rent to, they recently sent a letter suggesting that we had not been paying enough for the last 10 years of which they have been the landlords for part of that time. I am sorting out the land registry thing but my question is if I do have to pay can they demand all the back rent in one go or can I tell them this is not possible to do and pay it in installments?

  • 2 Answers

    By Guest on 08/01/2014

    Hi,

    Thank you for your question. What action the landlord can take depends on how much you owe. The first thing you should note is that by virtue of the Limitation Act 1980 your landlord can only claim arrears for the last 6 years. If you owe more than £250 and if there is a forfeiture clause in the lease (which there almost certainly will be) the landlord can apply to the Court for an order for possession and if successful can bring the lease to an end and evict you without compensation.

    In the circumstances, if you attended the possession hearing (if the landlord took it that far) and put forward a proposal to pay in instalments the judge may well accept your proposal and either refuse to grant the order or grant a suspended order.

    You should start by asking the landlord to provide proof of their claim that the rent has been underpaid. The amount you have to pay will be set out in the lease (though some leases include provision for periodic increases which is sometimes by reference to the Retail Price Index rather than being a set figure). Once you have established that the debt is due talk to the landlord. They are likely to be sensible about it and as long as you put forward a reasonable proposal they should accept it. They will want to avoid legal action unless it is absolutely necessary.

    Kindly note that if you want to respond to this reply you will need to register with us.

    Regards

    Admin

  • By Guest on 29/03/2016

    I have been told that the house that I live in at present is lease hold, I have lived here since September 1996 and have not been made aware of this for all this time, how do I find out who owns the lease?

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