Can anyone help re groundrent/leasehold probs?

[louloulouise]

I got a letter out of the blue asking for groundrent for 06,07,08 and 09 - I'm not sure if it's from the same place/person as when we paid groundrent for 04 and 05 (moved in in 03). How do we find out who we genuinely should be paying the groundrent to? I don't know why but I have suspicions about the letter (probably being silly) - should I just pay the rent demand and shut up?!

The other thing is that they are demanding a copy of my insurance details for the property, 'under the terms of your lease, the Insurance should be "approved by the freeholder". This gives him the right of providing you with this service'. We've never had terms of the leasehold?! Am I oblidged to provide this?

THe letters have come through an 'Independant Inventory and Property COnsultant' but only provide a mobile no on which to contact, does this seem dodgy to anyone else.

I know as a general rule you wouldn't have much contact from a freeholder apart from the rent demands but for some reason this is ringing alarm bells and I'm not sure whether I'm just being paranoid.

I've been given 10 days in which to pay up or they will be referring my £5.02 debt onto a collection agency!!!! Any help will be appreciated!

do you have a copy of your lease?

No copy of lease at all, never had one. I've also rang CAB and they recommended I speak to a solicitor!

If you are a flat - try knocking on the neighbors doors - what do they say? You should all have the same freeholder.

You only need to pay ground rent if you own the flat. If you do, your solicitor who did the conveyancing will know who the freeholder is/was - as you can't actually do a transaction with the land registry without it / or get a mortgage without seeing the lease.

Contact your solicitor - ask him for a copy of the lease - this will state who the freeholder is. They normally charge a small fee for document retrieval, (about £15) your solicitor is legally obliged to keep the file. Chances are he has got it and just forgot to post. You should get it in a week. You could ask the solicitor to fax it to you if you are in a big hurry.

It is right that the freeholder needs to ensure that you have buildings insurance for your property. But that's it -

Call this company and tell them you are just referring to your lease (which is in storage - just fob them off) and tell them you will get back to them in a few days.

You can do a search at the land registry on line: here This will show you who the freeholder is. If that isn't the person who wrote to you you can query the demand.

You can also buy a copy of your lease from the land registry for a nominal sum. It might be quicker than the process of your solicitor ordering up deeds or files from store and sending you a copy.

Ground rent interests often change hands at auction. No-one is interested in the £5 a year. People buy these because the landlord can organise the buildings insurance (not contents, just buildings), and get commission from the insurer.

Sorry - daytoday - often leases do allow the landlord to actually insure. I don't think what you said was quite right.

I'm getting into a real panic about this, I have emailed the inventory and property consultants that this letter has come through and requested a copy of my leasehold agreement as I have never had one, I also assured them payment was on its way. The conveyancer (sp?) who we used when we bought the house said he didn't have details of the freeholder and to wait for a bill.

I've looked on the land registry site but it seems to suggest it will show the owners (i.e us) rather than the freeholder and I can't find any other info on the site.

Tbh, we are completely skint so we can't afford to buy solicitors time or documents etc, we just don't have the money.

I'm working myself into hysterics over this, I'm so scared of them passing to an agency, owing loads of money and having our credit rating trashed in the process. I've never owned a house before, hence the worry!

I've just fired off an enquiry to the leasehold advisory service as well.

The info on the land registry site should show all the owners, ie owners of the freehold and owners of the leasehold(presumably you).

If it were me, I would spend the £4 for the Land Registry record, if only to put my mind at rest.

I have contacted the Leasehold Advisory Service in the past and they were very helpful.

The land registry will show more than one owner if there is more than one legal interest. In your case you own a leasehold, and the landlord owns a freehold.

I was in this situation with my last house. I'm fairly sure that they can't dictate who your insurer is. I will root around to see what I can find about this as it caused a lot of problems when selling up (delays, rather that "problems") Are you in the North/NW of England in a terraced house by any chance? These ground rent issues are very common in these areas.

Found this which might help

Yep, terraced house, in the north west. I sent an email to these 'consultants' telling them payment on its way and querying the request for insurance details - no reply! A few people I know have said they had this and just paid but ignored the insurance request and they were left alone. I'm just going to see what they do next I think and hope for the best!