The issue of Blythe Court flats being sold with exorbitant ground rents is the subject of a website article by international property law giant Hogan Lovells.
The article can be read in full here
It reports how Sir Peter Bottomley intervened to stop the sale of 1 Blythe Court, which was to have been auctioned on February 2 by Barnard Marcus auctions.
The article begins:
On 21 January, Sir Peter Bottomley MP tabled an early day motion in the House of Commons requesting that Flat 1 Blythe Court, Solihull, be withdrawn from an upcoming auction.
The motion was tabled because the sellers were apparently “withholding essential information of penal ground rent provision that make the premises worthless”.
The property was indeed withdrawn and the legal pack removed from the auctioneer’s website.
Hogan Lovells obtained a copy of the lease from the Land Registry. It then reproduced a table showing ground rents increasing from £250 in 1961 to an astronomic £8,192,000 by the year 2111.
It notes: “Had the ground rent at 1 Blythe Court been described in the lease by using the table below instead of a formula, we very much doubt the leaseholder would have agreed to it.
“If tenants and leaseholders are offered fixed rent increases, they should tread carefully and make sure they understand what they are signing up to.”
Related posts:
Guardian reports the Blythe Court ground rent scandal
Barnard Marcus withdraws Blythe Court flat from auction
Stop auction of ‘worthless’ flat at Blythe Court and alert authorities, Commons asked
BBC R4’s You & Yours feature Blythe Court … and now the freeholder wants ‘more ethical approach to charges’
Martin Paine sells on Blythe Court, where ground rents reach £8,000 a year
LEASE: we need to make a million pounds a year by 2020
“If tenants and leaseholders are offered fixed rent increases, they should tread carefully and make sure they understand what they are signing up to.”
That’s easy to say, but if you are a first time buyer in London, you are a lamb for the slaughter and probably just grateful you found a flat at all. You won’t necessarily expect this sort of trick. The housing crisis will spread to the rest of the UK, us leaseholders need protection from the law and sweeping reform. This is the first time I’ve heard this particular ground rent trick, but there are many other scams that freeholders (supported by their lawyers and accountants) freely engage in.
Good points leaseholder.
This is the first time that I have also heard of this particular ground rent trick, but there are many other scams that freeholders (supported by their lawyers and accountants) freely engage in.
Is it possible to find out the name of the solicitors/lawyers that Martin Paine used to support his scheming scam of Blythe Court leases.
It would be wonderful to hear what Martin Paine’s solicitor had got to say about the amended lease they produced/supported, and why they did
Some leases have an automatic percentile increase in ground rent at a given time.
Others contain a clause that any alteration (uplift) to ground rents must be as a result of the freeholder or agent approaching the RICS to appoint an independent surveyor to revalue the ground rent.
This is wholly at the expense of the freeholder.
It has been known in the past for Estates & Management acting on behalf of Proxima/Fairhold to write to a leaseholder claiming that a valuation has been carried out and demanding an increase in ground rent.. The trouble is that when asked Estates &Management have shown themselves to be very reluctant to reveal who conducted the survey? It is almost as though Estates & Management revalued the property themselves! As ever, check your lease.