• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to footer

01384 889900

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Lease Claims

Lease Claims

Part of FS Legal Solicitors

  • About Us
  • Ground Rent Scandal
  • Leasehold Scandal
  • Request a callback
  • News
  • About Us
  • Ground Rent Scandal
  • Leasehold Scandal
  • Request a callback
  • News

Leasehold Doubling Clauses: What Are They and Where You Would Find Them

23rd May 2019 by rob

Ground Rent Charge

As a leaseholder, you will be aware of the annual ground rent charge that you are required to pay to the freeholder of your home. This may be due to your conveyancer pointing this out to you before the point of sale, or alternatively, by the letter demanding payment falling onto your doormat sometime later. However, an element you may not have been made aware of is the way in which this sum is set to increase periodically, affecting your ability to sell your home on in the future.

There are a variety of ways in which these ground rent clauses can increase. For example, it may increase by 10% every 25 years, by a calculation that rises with the Retail Price Index or it may in-fact double every 10, 15 or 25 years.

It is these doubling clauses that are being snubbed by a number of mortgage lenders, such as Nationwide and Santander (correct as of June 2018). Ultimately, lenders are not prepared to provide a prospective buyer of your home the funds needed, leaving you unable to sell your home.

Doubling Ground Rent Clause

To understand if your property is subject to a ground rent clause that is set to double, you will be able to identify this within your lease document. Every lease is different; however the element you will be looking for should display similarly. Within the lease document, there will be a Definition and Interpretation section,  that defines key terms within the document. Here, you should look for “Rent” or “Ground Rent” and the clause will be displayed either expressly, in a numbered format:

Doubling

or, more difficult to identify, impliedly by the wording. An example being “The rent will be set to increase by 100% on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the commencement of term”

If on examination of your document, you do identify an onerous doubling clause, do not panic. We may be able to help.

We understand that your decision to purchase your home may have been different if you had been made aware of this clause and its wider implication by your solicitor at the time of sale. In law, there is a great onus put on a contracting party to communicate and identify onerous terms, as it is said metaphorically by Lord Denning ‘it should be in red ink with a red hand pointing to it.’ If you feel that this was not the case for you, you may have a claim for professional negligence and we would be happy to discuss this further with you.

Category iconNews

Reader Interactions

Footer

Birmingham Office

1 Hagley Court South,
Waterfront East,
Level Street,
Brierley Hill,
West Midlands,
DY5 1XE

01384 889900

Manchester Office

Capital House,
12 Oxford Road,
Altrincham,
Cheshire,
WA14 2EB

0161 714 4520

Useful Links

Get In Touch
Ground Rent Scandal
Leasehold Scandal
News

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

FS Legal LLP, registered office, 1 Hagley Court South, The Waterfront, Brierley Hill, West Midlands DY5 1XE (OC366452) is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 565776.
New South Law Ltd, registered office, Suite 3a, Anchor Springs, Duke Street, Littlehampton, BN17 6BP (10725076) is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 645781.
Nelsons Solicitors Limited, registered office, Pennine House, 8 Stanford Street, Nottingham NG1 7BQ (07219010) is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 536939