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[Benzo]

That is interesting. I will put this to our legal guys and see what they say.

[Benzo]

Thanks Lawcruncher, I suggested 10% plus VAT so I'm glad to see we're in a similar place on this.

You're exactly right on the formal vs informal - the informal extensions by standard for this freeholder are extending the lease to 99 years (not by 99 years) and adding clauses about ground...

[Benzo]

Gordon999 / Section20z

It would be very unusual to implement a charge just for collecting ground rent and it can't include amounts for chasing non-payers, that would definitely be unreasonable.
As others have suggested this collection duty can be taken over by the RTM resulting in...

[Benzo]

It varies per lease. The original leases have it at £100 PA - and as the collection charge is levied twice yearly, this amounts to 96% of the total.

The informally extended leases are linked to RPI and vary between about £200-300 PA dependent on when they were extended.

Those...

[Benzo]

Hi guys

I've confirmed that our MA IS allowed (by the terms of the lease) to charge residents a ground rent collection fee. However I'm still not clear what a 'reasonable' fee would be. The googling I've done suggests about 10% of total is appropriate - does that sound about right? Is there...

[Benzo]

I don't think we're supposed to name particular companies or their business practices but we also used the above mentioned company. You can either pay them to do RTM or they'll do it for free (minus tribunal costs and the freeholder's legal costs) in exchange for a few years management.

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