Leasehold property- ground rent pack

[Coconutlittlebee]

We’re currently in the process of selling our flat and experiencing the joys of a Leasehold sale. A few weeks ago we paid for our the management pack from our management company- totally fine with this, was a little more than we’d budgeted (on the higher price of all the estimates we’d seen online) but no issues- knew it was coming, knew we needed to do it so paid straight away.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago and our solicitor has said we need to pay the company who take our ground rent for their pack (and this would be almost another £400). I’m going to go back to our solicitor to ask about this but just wanted to check if this is normal and something we do need to pay or something we can push back on? No issue paying if it is just one of them things we need but obviously if we could avoid it that money would be really appreciated elsewhere. Think my surprise has come because I did a lot of reading up before we started the selling process and haven’t seen it mentioned before but I know it might just be the case that ours is different.

Thanks for any help!

Do your management company not collect your ground rent?

I wouldn't expect an independent freeholder to have a 'pack', just a letter confirming collection amount and pattern, and that you're not in arrears.

I sold a leasehold flat and only had to pay the managing agent for the pack. My ground rent was collected and paid separately but there was no additional charge, just more work for the solicitor which I assume is covered in their fee which had an add on of £350 for dealing with a leasehold property.

Totally forgot about this post- in a really busy couple of months this problem seemingly disappeared and we just forgot about it till it reared its ugly head just before Christmas 😭. Pushed back having read these responses and unfortunately their solicitor is not budging that we need to buy this extra pack. Gutted because this is a lot of money for us and it feel like their solicitor just keeps asking for more and more things that we have to pay out for.

Thanks for the response. No unfortunately our ground rent is collected by a different company (unbeknownst to us when we bought) so wasn’t included in our management pack and isn’t just a freeholder. I’m still really frustrated by this because I’m really struggling to understand why it’ll cost almost £400 to tell them that we’re up to date with our ground rent.

Thanks for this- this was reassuring to hear and exactly what we thought would be the case for us. Unfortunately not looking like it will be though :(.

What is in this pack? I’m about to buy a leasehold flat and I have never heard of a pack!

So it’s Simarc. Is this the same company you’ve gone through?

So sorry you’re going through this- literally a joke that they have the audacity to even charge this. Massive thank you though because your post may have really helped us. Do you know if there’s any links or information available about them being taken to court about this? Going to relay to our solicitor and see if this changes her views at all.

Sorry one more cheeky question but I have a feeling this will come to a head over the next couple of days. If you don’t mind me asking what did you receive as part of the pack from Simarc? Was it literally just the ground rent statement? We’re still trying to push to our seller’s solicitor that we don’t understand why they specifically require this pack.

Unfortunately this is common OP. I even see properties that need 3 information packs.

Ahhh thanks and yeah I hundred percent agree the problem is the companies and their unreasonable costs and we’ve already discussed that if we do end up paying it we will look to take Simarc to tribunal because as you say other comparable documents/ services have been provided for a fraction of the price.

But my point with our buyer is more around that by showing some leniency her and her solicitor can save us a lot of time/ effort and money. If they can let us provide what will be in the pack in an alternative form that won’t cost us £370 (which we’ve tried to suggest and discuss several times) we would totally avoid having to pay and then later taking Simarc to tribunal. I’d totally get it if they were getting really important information from this and would have no issue paying but from what I understand outside of our ground rent statement there’s nothing in this pack that they haven’t already received. Guess my point is just that we can’t fix the system so why make ourselves a victim of it when just a bit of flexibility there side would mean we avoid it totally (and again we never recieved this when we bought the flat so we know it’s possible to live without it).

But then surely this is where logic should be used on which ones are necessary and which ones are not. That’s my whole point with our situation- the specific pack they’re requesting gives them very little that they don’t already have (and maybe naively I think we could get this in another way). I’d have a totally different opinion if what we recieved in the management pack was split between the two and would have just paid it but to me the ask is unreasonable for the information they’ll recieve. And don’t get me wrong I know the cost isn’t the buyer’s fault but this is where just a little bit of flexibility would save so much stress and energy (we’d 100% have done it if it was the other way around). Just feels like if we can avoid playing into a corrupt system why would we not.

My late father lived in his house for over 70 years his mortgage has been long paid up .The property is leasehold originally a neighbour collected the £3 ground rent subsequently collection has passed to Simarc .
Aged 96 when he passed still living in the same house my father paid his ground rent by post in the form of a cheque.On his passing a receipt for his latest payment was all I could find.I contacted Simarc providing all information requested including copies of his Death Certificate & the Grant of Probate .I paid this years £3 by telephone as soon as I got a bill having tried to pay in advance & being told payment could not be taken as it was