This statement applies to leaseholders of long-term residential leases where Aviva is the landlord and where the terms of their lease cause their ground rent payment to double more frequently than every 20 years.
Aviva Investors, as managers of the Aviva Investors REaLM Ground Rent Fund (the ‘Fund’), has undertaken to amend all long-term residential leases acquired by the Fund that contain terms which cause the ground rent that is payable in those leases to double every 10 or 15 years (a ‘doubling term’).
Since 2018 Aviva Investors has offered leaseholders with a doubling term the opportunity to replace it with a Retail Price Index linked ground rent (a ‘RPI replacement term’). Leaseholders who took advantage of this offer, which will have involved them signing a legal document called a ‘deed of variation’, will also benefit from the new more favourable treatment explained below.
All long-term residential leases where Aviva is the landlord, and which still have or did have a doubling term will be varied so that they no longer contain that doubling term or the RPI replacement term. The ground rent payable will be reset to the amount it was when the lease was first granted (the amount recorded in the lease) and this will never increase.
If you have a qualifying lease you do not need to do anything as the Fund’s asset manager, Mainstay Residential Limited, will contact you by no later than 21 September 2021.
If you have not been contacted by 21 September 2021 and believe you have a qualifying lease then after that date please contact rentdeed@innovus.co.uk.
Former Leaseholders
If you had a qualifying lease and paid an increased ground rent following the implementation of a rent review, you may be entitled to a refund of any rent paid in excess of the initial ground rent.
If you believe this applies to you, please contact rentdeed@innovus.co.uk as soon as possible. You do not need to wait until 21 September 2021 before doing so.
Page updated on 7 December 2023 to record updated email address.