Collecting Service Charge Arrears
If you are a landlord that is looking to sell your freehold it is a good idea to make sure that the service charge accounts are all up to date and that there are no arrears. If any of the leaseholders are in arrears it is advisable to collect the money before you sell the building. The problem with service charge issues / arrears or a service dispute is that the new owner has no guarantee that they will be able to collect them on your behalf so you can’t expect them to pay you the arrears when completion takes place
Collecting Ground Rent Arrears
The situation is completely different with ground rent arrears as you should not have a problem recovering any monies owed for ground rent. Unlike the service charge the leaseholder has to pay this come what may. The ultimate sanction for not doing so is to forfeit the lease and nobody is going to let that happen. It is reasonable for a buyer to pay you uncollected ground rent going back 6 years but not more than that. If you are unable to recover the ground rent arrears then you can ask the buyer to pay them to you with a view to recovering them after completion has taken place. For more information please get in touch with us.
We Will Pay The Arrears To You
If you are looking to sell your ground rents are there are arrears that you would like to receive as part of the sale please call us to discuss it. We may be able to give you the outstanding arrears on completion of the sale to us. We are certainly happy to pay the ground rent arrears to you going back six years. We can’t go back further due to the statute of limitations. The chances of ground rent not being paid for longer than that is quite remote anyway.
We are happy to pay ground rent arrears and happy to discuss your service charge arrears with you with a view to finding a solution and helping with the sale of your freehold.