Alterations to your property or your lease

How is E&J approaching Countryside Lease Variations?

This is for the attention of leaseholders of long-term residential leases originally purchased from Countryside Properties Plc or a subsidiary and where the original terms of their lease specify that the ground rent payable under the lease will double more often than every 20 years (“Countryside Lease”).

Freeholder clients of E&J Estates (“E&J”) have undertaken to amend all long-term residential Countryside Leases acquired by E&J that include terms under which the ground rent payable doubles every 10 or 15 years (a ‘doubling term’).

Since 2018 E&J has contacted all leaseholders with a doubling term with the offer to replace these with a Retail Price Index linked ground rent (a ‘RPI replacement term’). Leaseholders who took up this opportunity, and signed a legal document known as a ‘deed of variation’, will now also benefit from new, more favourable lease terms, which we have summarised below.

All long-term residential Countryside Leases where an E&J client is the landlord, and which still have or originally had a doubling term, will be varied so that they no longer contain that doubling term or, where applicable, the RPI replacement term. The ground rent payable will be reset to the sum that applied when the Lease was first granted (the amount specified in the lease) and this will now never increase in future.

If you have a Countryside Lease that qualifies for this new treatment, you do not need to take any action.

If you have not been contacted and believe you have a Countryside Lease which qualifies for the new terms, please contact legal@eandjestates.co.uk.

Former Leaseholders

If you previously had a qualifying Countryside Lease and paid an increased ground rent following a rent review, you may be due a refund of any rent paid in excess of the initial ground rent.

If you believe this position applies to you, we ask you to contact legal@eandjestates.co.uk as soon as possible.

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