The National Trust is being criticised in the press over claims it has hiked the ground rents for some elderly tenants by as much as 10,000 per cent.
In a strongly-worded statement, the Tenants Association of the National Trust said the organisation is trying to "exploit vulnerable parties ... to make a quick – and very large – buck".
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Among the cases, it is citing is that of an 87-year-old tenant of a property on National Trust land, who faces an increase in his ground rent from £148 to £15,000 a year if he goes ahead and extends his ownership lease.
Alternatively he has been told he can "buy out the higher ground rent", says The Times, at a cost of £78,000.
Ed Vaizey, the Conservative former heritage minister, said that a National Trust leaseholder in his South Oxfordshire constituency complained his ground rent was rising from £50 to £5,000 a year.
But the National Trust has defended the changes.
It says leaseholders, who mostly bought 49-year leases including only nominal ground rents, were always due to move to higher "modern ground rents" in the event they exercised their legal right to extend the lease by 50 years.
The provision is included in the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 and is designed to "strike a balance between the competing interests of landlords and tenants", says the Slee Blackwell Solicitors website.
Controversy over these provisions, which could affect around 300 of the 5,000 occupied National Trust homes, dates back to at least 2014.
Under the 1967 act, the move to "modern ground rents" means revaluing the charge based on the land value of the property – a proportion of the overall property value – and dividing this over a number of years.
Huge increases in property prices in recent years means the increases in rents are sizeable.
The National Trust says where it is satisfied tenants were misled over the changes that would come when they renewed their lease it will forego the modern ground rent, as it has done in one case.
It adds that it has been released from its obligation to maximise the value of its land and that the buyout values offered to leaseholders are half of the full commercial market rate.
-
The Taliban wages war on high-speed internetTHE EXPLAINER A new push to cut nationwide access to the digital world is taking Afghanistan back to the isolationist extremes of decades past
-
The US and Colombia renew their feud over the drug warIn the Spotlight The US has accused Colombia of failing in its drug-fighting efforts
-
‘The problem isn’t solved by simply swapping out the faces on screen’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Labour shortages: the ‘most urgent problem’ facing the UK economy right nowSpeed Read Britain is currently in the grip of an ‘employment crisis’
-
Will the energy war hurt Europe more than Russia?Speed Read European Commission proposes a total ban on Russian oil
-
Will Elon Musk manage to take over Twitter?Speed Read The world’s richest man has launched a hostile takeover bid worth $43bn
-
Shoppers urged not to buy into dodgy Black Friday dealsSpeed Read Consumer watchdog says better prices can be had on most of the so-called bargain offers
-
Ryanair: readying for departure from LondonSpeed Read Plans to delist Ryanair from the London Stock Exchange could spell ‘another blow’ to the ‘dwindling’ London market
-
Out of fashion: Asos ‘curse’ has struck againSpeed Read Share price tumbles following the departure of CEO Nick Beighton
-
Universal Music’s blockbuster listing: don’t stop me now…Speed Read Investors are betting heavily that the ‘boom in music streaming’, which has transformed Universal’s fortunes, ‘still has a long way to go’
-
EasyJet/Wizz: battle for air supremacySpeed Read ‘Wizz’s cheeky takeover bid will have come as a blow to the corporate ego’
