County court judgement for ground rent

[kennykenken]

I bought a lease hold property flat. This is one of the worst mistakes of my life.

I pay £1000 per annum in service charges. The freeholder does not provide me with any services. There are no communal areas, gardens, lifts.

I pay the monthly service charge using a payment card. I have never failed to pay my service charge.

A county court judgment was issued against me for non-payment of rent. I do not understand how this happened? When I inquired further, I was told it was actually ground rent. Shouldn’t this have been clearly stated.

According to the freeholder, I should have been paying ground rent separately. I was never notified or informed of this. Up until now, I have never received a single demand for ground rent. Is this right?

What is the best action to take?

[cerberusalert]

Your solicitor should have brought this to your attention when you bought the leasehold, it should be noted what the ground rent was on the deeds.

[andydd]

Hi there.

 

Dont beat yourself up to much, unless you actually buy a house, most flats are leasehold so often no escaping it.

 

I too was at the mercy of my Fh and being ripped off but ive fought back, btaen him in court and been refunded many thousands of pounds, I'm sure I can help

 

Right, lets start with ground rent, it MUST be demanded in accordance with S166 of Commonhold & Leasehold Reform Act 2002 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/15/section/166), this means demand must have certain wording, if it is not demanded it IS NOT payable, simple as that.

 

So the court case has been and gone and you lost ?. Did you attend or was judgment in default ?. If you didnt attend, why not ?

 

It may be possible to get this set aside, how much is ground rent ?, how many years do they allege you owe ?

 

So lets move on to service charges, they are smply costs thet the FH has spent and can be re-imbursed, normally its insurance, building works and a management fee.

 

If you say no works have been done, the does the service charge list any maintanence or works ?

 

Does it include an amount for insurance ?. Often this is very high and can be challanged at a LVT (a informal court for leasehold issues).

 

Have you a copy of your lease ? (youll need it), have you copies of any service charge/fround rent demands ?

 

Lease Advisory Site is good source of info/help > http://www.lease-advice.org/

 

Andy

[andydd]

Your solicitor should have brought this to your attention when you bought the leasehold, it should be noted what the ground rent was on the deeds.

 

But as Ive pointed out, whilst lease may say something like Ground Rent is payable every year without demand, this is no longer the case and this has been superceded by provision of Commonhold & Leasehold Reform Act which requiore ground rent demands to be sent.

[andyask]

Did you inform them of your details when you moved in? Ask them for copies of the bills they have sent.

If no bill has been sent then that is an issue. Firstly pay the ground rent. Secondly ask the freeholder if the CCJ can be satisfied or indeed removed from your record whilst explaining that you did not receive the bill. Before a CCJ I would normally expect several letters to precede it with a warning about what could happen on non-payment. Consider taking your case to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal http://www.lease-advice.org/

Just the mention of the LVT in a letter may be enough for them to be more helpful. Worked for me

[andydd]

Did you inform them of your details when you moved in? Ask them for copies of the bills they have sent.

If no bill has been sent then that is an issue. Firstly pay the ground rent. Secondly ask the freeholder if the CCJ can be satisfied or indeed removed from your record whilst explaining that you did not receive the bill. Before a CCJ I would normally expect several letters to precede it with a warning about what could happen on non-payment. Consider taking your case to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal http://www.lease-advice.org/

Just the mention of the LVT in a letter may be enough for them to be more helpful. Worked for me

 

Iif no ground rent demand has been sent it simply is not payable (the leaseholder may choose to pay it out of the goodness of his heart although not legally due).

 

First step is to enquire about a set aside, this is possible if judgment was in default, and the OP has a good reason why he did not attend, ill, wrong address, etc. As no ground rent demands have been sent (yet alone compying with S166) then it would appear to be easy to win this.

 

If a set aside is not permitted, then an appeal may be a possible route, but I believe this could be complex, costly and not worth the effort.

 

The lat step is as suggested, pay the ground rent (if done in time, the CCj is cleared), if not done in time it can at lease be marked satisfied.

 

LVT's have NO juridstiction over Ground Rent but do over service charges..which may be a seperate issue, but we need to hear back from the OP.

 

Andy

[andydd]

You here kenny, care to respond ?

[kennykenken]

Yes, I'm here. For some unknown reason I couldn't find this post. No results are returned when I click onto all posted threads.

[kennykenken]

I have consistently paid the monthly service charges for more than five years. I have never received any demand for ground rent. I do not know how or to whom it should be paid. Nothing is clear with this freeholder. The Lease Holder team are useless because they themselves did not know why it went to court.

 

The CCJ states non payment of rent. Shouldn't it clearly state that it is for ground rent, when the ground rent was due and the actual amounts that were missed.

 

The freeholders evidence is a list of monthly service charges including the dates I paid them on. At the bottom it states I owe £500. Is this right?

 

How can I fight this and win? The CCJ is in default. Not sure why I never received it.

[andydd]

First thing you must do ios to try and get this set aside.

 

You will need to put forward some good reasons, it isnt just the CCJ you calimed not to have received,there would of been lots of other letters, is it possible they wern't delivered or sent to the wrong address ? How did you find out about the CCJ ?

 

If you can get it set aside then you have a good defence, Ground Rent is only payable IF you receive a demand comply with S166 of Commonhold & Leasehold Reform Act 2002.

 

I dont know if your freeholders evidence is right, I havnt seen it !

 

See here for some set aside info (and link to form N244). > http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingDebt/Respondingtoacourtclaimformoney/DG_195867

 

Andy