WHEN you buy a property, it will be either freehold or leasehold. Occasionally if it is freehold, the deeds may say that you have to pay an annual rent charge to a rent charge owner, but this is not common.

If your property is leasehold (often for a period such as 999 years), the lease often stipulates that a ground rent has to be paid to the freeholder, and there are often conditions stating, for example, that you must not make any alterations to the property without the freeholder's prior written consent.

It is most important to comply with all these conditions because if you do not, the freeholder or the ground rent collector can cause problems for you.

You should pay the ground rent on the date specified in the lease so that you do not fall into arrears, but you should note that a freeholder is not entitled to claim more than six years' outstanding ground ground rent from you because the debt becomes time-barred after six years.

There are in the North West a number of companies who claim what they call administration fees or expenses when the ground rent is not paid on time. These fees are often out of all proportion to the ground rent payable.

The freeholder (or ground rent collector) sometimes states that they will not accept the rent unless the administration fees are paid and that if you have a mortgage, they sometimes contact your mortgage company to try to get the ground rent from them.

Unless your particular lease states that you can be charged administration fees for late payment of ground rent (and most leases do not), you are not obliged to pay any such expenses.

If you receive a demand for such administration expenses, you should take the following action:

Pay the outstanding ground rent (but never more than six years' worth);

Indicate that you dispute their entitlement to charge administration fees or expenses and request that they provide you with proof that they can charge these fees;

Send a copy of your letter to your mortgage company, quoting your mortgage account number, and say that you do not want the disputed amount added to your mortgage debt;

If you are in any doubt at all, take legal advice as soon as possible.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.