I’ve had my annual bill for ground rent (first one – we moved in in June). It’s £1.50 and the address is £1.50 in arrears.

My dad, with some knowledge of property law, says to ignore it as its too low a figure to pursue legally.

Shall we a) pay it? b) ignore it? c) offer a £15 buy out to buy the ground rent lease to the property?

a) yes, saves any problems. Rent is one of those contractual payments that benefits from all sorts of legal protection, dont **** with it.

b) No. You can ask the freeholder if he’s willing to waive the monetary payment on the grounds of effort, but get that waiver in writing and the term of the waiver.

c) It will be worth a bit more than £15. If you want a proper value, then post up the terms of the ground rent including any fixed uplifts and length of lease, and the value of the property now, and I can give you an idea.

Pay up as per covenants within your lease, doesn’t really matter whether it is £1.50 or £1500.

I would also read your lease thoroughly, freeholders can have some some pretty draconian rights within leases in their favor and you never know when you may want them to give you a concession of some kind. For example, technically I should not keep bikes in my garage FFS

I have a shared freehold and it is amazing the little tricks the board get up to to keep hold of my money illegally.