My ground rent increased by 9,000% after I bought my flat'

"From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging."

"When purchasing the leasehold for his maisonette in Hitchen, Hertfordshire, he said he knew there was a ground rent - an annual fee paid by a leaseholder to the freeholder - of 25 per year. But a few months later, the 33-year-old communications professional received a letter saying the fee should have been reviewed in 2018, and he could expect it to go up by between 2,000 to 3,000 per year."

The Independent covers major national and global topics and funds on-the-ground reporting through reader donations while maintaining open access without paywalls. The outlet investigates financials, produces documentaries like 'The A Word' about American women fighting for reproductive rights, and emphasizes parsing facts from messaging. A leaseholder, Dave Pickett, bought a maisonette in 2019 expecting a ground rent of £25 per year but was later told the rent should have been reviewed in 2018 and could rise dramatically. Arbitration set the rent at £2,350 per year and backdated the increase, producing a large bill. The government announced a cap of £250 per year on ground rents in England and Wales as part of home-ownership reforms.

Read at www.independent.co.uk