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How much is there to run in a converted house? I'm in the same situation as you and pretty much the only thing we do is buildings insurance (which is about the same price as your ground rent).
Admittedly the lease does have us responsible for the top and bottom half of the house respectively so there are very few communal areas but that hasn't worked out too badly as I've combined roof works with a loft conversion which the other freeholder has no issue with.
aggi-
How much is there to run in a converted house? I'm in the same situation as you and pretty much the only thing we do is buildings insurance (which is about the same price as your ground rent).
We're in a house converted into 3 flats, share of freehold.
The money we pay a month goes to cover buildings insurance, pollarding of various trees on the property (they're covered by tree preservation orders) and a sinking fund for maintenance of communal bits and for emergencies.
Roof repairs tend to be shared between the two properties (even if the lower properties have no roof) so sometimes people downstairs will resist change to share of freehold.
Other than that it's cheaper than the sum of service charge and ground rent under leasehold as there's no administration fee or people raking off management fees.
Someone ends up doing the administration though. We have a limited company to own the freehold, so I'm a director of that, and one of the neighbours has to submit accounts to Companies house each year. Plus someone has to shop around and obtain the buildings insurance each year.
We bought into the share of the freehold, so I've no idea how much faff was involved in converting it.
[EDIT] 3 bed flat (middle floor) and we pay 80 quid a month.
Greenbank
Have tried weighing up the pros and cons of that before. I'm not convinced the benefits are worth the hassle, particularly since the owner of the ground floor flat (it's only the two) doesn't live there and I don't want to be responsible for running everything.
Other than this lease extension thing (which is a one-off) there's no significant costs associated with the freehold. No service charges etc., just the relatively insignificant ground rent.