Ground Rent

[Sparkatan]

A bit long and drawn out so please be patient.

I have a buy to let apartment (Title 1) with a car parking space (Title 2)

The car parking space landlord has never provided safe and secure car parking and i have been in dispute with the landlord since 2012, withholding Ground Rent and service charges for the parking space since 2018

In 2022, realising that that it would be better if i wax seen to have contributed something, i made a full and final payment offer of 50% of the Ground Rent for years 2018 to 2022. This offer was not disputed and payment was made and accepted.

In June this year my mortgage provider was asked car parking space landlord, via their solicitor, to pay outstanding Ground Rent for 2018 to 2021. There was admin and legal fees added to the claim and, despite my advice to my mortgage provider that i was in dispute, the mortgage provider added the sum to my mortgage.

I contacted the landlord’s solicitor and told them i had made a full and final settlement for the Ground Rent and this had been accepted by their client. As such they had No right to demand monies from my mortgage provider. The solicitor replied that their client had never accepted the offer. I asked the solicitor for evidence of the non-acceptance but they have not produced it and no longer reply to my emails requesting this.

Despite asking my mortgage provider to remove the charges from my account they refuse to do so saying i need to sort it out with the landlord or their solicitor.

As it seems i’ve reached stalemate do i a) contact the Legal Ombudsman with a claim for a solicitor dishonestly claiming monies or b) contact the Financial Ombudsman for my mortgage provider adding charges to my account despite my pleads that i am in dispute and the charges shouldn’t have been added?

[atticus]

In 2022, realising that that it would be better if i wax seen to have contributed something, i made a full and final payment offer of 50% of the Ground Rent for years 2018 to 2022. This offer was not disputed and payment was made and accepted.

This doesn't sound quite right. Can you explain step by step, how the offer was made, how it was accepted (what do you mean by "not disputed"?), and how payment was made.

[Sparkatan]

The dispute over payment for the parking space had been going on since 2013 when the landlord purchased the car park. There was no security and no maintenance carried out. My argument was the car park was unfit for use which the landlord would not acknowledge. Additionally, the landlord never provided service charge accounts as was a legal requirement and which i asked for numerous times. Hence my decision to withhold payment from 2018 until the car park was made fit for use.

I believed it would end up in court and was advised that if it did it was better if i had paid something rather than not at all.

I made a full and final offer of 50% of the ground rent for years 2018 to 2021. I made the offer by email, with a copy letter, and told the landlord i would pay the amount into their account in 24 hours. If this was not acceptable please let me know by return and the offer will be withdrawn. If i do not receive a reply within 24 hours i will assume the offer is accepted and the transfer will be made.
No reply was given and the transfer was made.
I did not receive a reply and have never received any form of non-acceptance of the offer.
It was in November 2024 when i was contacted by my mortgage provider advising me they had been contacted by a solicitor requesting payment of unpaid charges. The car park title had a charge against my rental property which was mortgaged.
I told them i was in dispute with the landlord and not to pay the demand.
In August this year my mortgage provider told me they had been issued with a Section 146 notice and would pay the amount. It then transpired the amount being demanded was for ground rent for 2018 to 2021.
I contacted the landlord’s solicitor advising them i had paid a full and final settlement for this. They replied that the offer had been made but that the landlord had refused it. I asked the solicitor for evidence of this but have not been given anything to prove it nor have i been sent any reply. I asked again five weeks ago but the solicitor has not replied.

[atticus]

On what you have said there was no agreement and no full and final settlement. You cannot create an agreement by stating that you will assume acceptance.

The fact that there was no communication of acceptance is your evidence of non acceptance.

[Sparkatan]

Surely the fact that the payment was accepted is an indication of acceptance of my offer? I asked them to let me know if they didn’t accept and as they didn’t refuse this surely they accepted it?
Why would the landlord wait a further two years before chasing further payment?

[atticus]

No. You owed money. You made an offer. Your offer was not accepted. You then made a payment. Your payment has been credited towards your debt, reducing what you owe.

There is plenty of case law which confirms that.

[PallasAthena]

I asked the solicitor for evidence of the non-acceptance but they have not produced it and no longer reply to my emails requesting this.

If you litigated this the responsibility would be on you to show that the Landlord had accepted your offer, not for the Landlord to prove that they had not accepted. So the LL's solicitor is not required to provide you with 'evidence of the non-acceptance'. You cannot deem someone has accepted your offer if they do not reply, even if they accept without comment money paid to them.

[Sparkatan]

Ok, i understand. It would have been better if i had held on to the payment until the landlord had accepted the offer.

My second question was related to my mortgage provider who added the outstanding ground rent to my account, despite my instruction that i was in dispute and not to pay it. My mortgage provider paid the charges to the landlord’s solicitor stating there had been a Section 146 Notice issued and a judicial determination when there had not. There had been no mention of court proceedings so the property was not at risk.
Was the mortgage provider right to pay the charges?

[atticus]

Wasn't that covered in your previous thread? See mortgage terms.