Property

Can we sell our home without paying off our ground rent bill?

Property Clinic: Landlords may find the cost of collecting ground rent prohibitive

When selling or mortgaging a property you need to prove you have at least 70 years left on your lease to show “marketable title”.

Wed Jan 12 2022 - 06:00

My question concerns ground rent. We bought our house 40 years ago. Up to about 20 years ago I got a demand for the ground rent (£4.60) payable yearly. This was always paid. I have received no demands for this rent in recent years. I believe the lease was for 999 years. I do not know the ground landlord’s name. If we were to sell our house would this have a bearing on the sale?

Samantha Geraghty writes: You do not have anything to worry about. It sounds like the title to your home is a long leasehold title. For the purposes of sale or mortgage of the property you will need to satisfy a purchaser or a lender that you have at least 70 years left to run on your lease in order to provide "marketable title".

More often than not, ground rents are not collected as it is often more expensive for the landlord to collect the rents than they are worth but this should not cause you any problems if you sell your leasehold property.

When you are selling or mortgaging your property you will be asked to provide either:

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1. the last receipt for rent payable (if demanded); and 2. the name and address of the person to whom rent is payable (if known); or 3. if the rent is nominal and has not been demanded (in the case of a lease for six years or in the case of a fee farm grant for twelve years), a statutory declaration confirming: (a) no rent during that period has been demanded; (b) no notices have been served by the landlord; (c) there have been no breaches or non-observance of the covenants and conditions contained in the lease/fee farm grant.

Your solicitor will be familiar with this practice and can draft this declaration for you.

You may also be entitled to buy out the freehold interest in your property but there is no legal requirement to do this unless the term of your lease is running out. This can be done by reaching agreement with the landlord if you know who that is or if not, you may make an application to the Ground Rents Section of the Property Registration Authority who will determine the price payable for the freehold interest and issue a vesting certificate to you, if you wish to avail of that process. Your solicitor will advise you on whether or not you are entitled to bring an application to acquire the freehold interest in your home.

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