Lenders Start to Change Ground Rules on Ground Rent

Historical ground-rent article

This article records changes to mortgage-lender requirements in 2017. It should not be relied upon as a statement of current lender policy.

For an explanation of why a lease accepted previously may cause difficulties today, read Ground Rent Mortgage Requirements: The Lease Has Not Changed, but the Market Has.

If a ground-rent clause is now affecting your sale or remortgage, read Ground Rent Problem Discovered When Selling: What Were You Told When You Bought?

Leasehold as a tenure received quite a lot of bad press in 2016 with the BBC and broadsheets such as the Telegraph  pointing to the risk of people buying homes with escalating ground rents. This culminated in the Government saying that it would reform leasehold property after a campaign by charities and MPs to challenge the arrangements.

 

October 2026 update: Lender ground rent instructions continue to evolve. Our analysis of Skipton Building Society’s ground rent requirements examines a further update to its leasehold instructions.

 

Should your firm wish to me made aware of changes to lender requirements please sign up to receive lender handbook notifications via LENDERmonitor.

Update September 2026: Where an escalating or onerous ground-rent provision is only appreciated when the property is later sold or remortgaged, it may be necessary to establish what the lender required and what was reported to the buyer at the original purchase. See ground-rent problems discovered after purchase.