Land registry anomaly when buying house
Discussion
I'm in the process buying of buying a nearly-new house at the moment. It's on a small estate, the management of which will be handed over to the residents from the developer shortly.
As part of the conveyancing process, we've discovered that part of the front garden doesn't form part of our title, but is rather part of the communal 'estate' area. See image below.
House: Brown
Back garden: Green
Front garden: Blue
Border on LR: Red
Is this something you'd get sorted before exchanging? And how much is this likely to cost? My solicitor hasn't been overly helpful about this.
Basically, I'm weighing up between the following options:
A) Ignore it. I can't see it being an issue, but it strikes me as something I should address
B) Insist the vendor rectifies this with the land registry
C) Chip the vendor down on price, with a view to rectifying once I'm in
D) Pull out
What do you reckon?
As part of the conveyancing process, we've discovered that part of the front garden doesn't form part of our title, but is rather part of the communal 'estate' area. See image below.
House: Brown
Back garden: Green
Front garden: Blue
Border on LR: Red
Is this something you'd get sorted before exchanging? And how much is this likely to cost? My solicitor hasn't been overly helpful about this.
Basically, I'm weighing up between the following options:
A) Ignore it. I can't see it being an issue, but it strikes me as something I should address
B) Insist the vendor rectifies this with the land registry
C) Chip the vendor down on price, with a view to rectifying once I'm in
D) Pull out
What do you reckon?
Possibly not long-term. Five years maybe.
Another concern is whether this is likely to be a concern for any buyers when we come to sell.
It’s not on a corner btw. There’s a fence to the left of the diagram, beyond which is next door’s garden. I guess another potential complication is if next door extend d the fence to claim that as their garden. It’s pretty unlikely though - the whole area is maybe 6ftx6ft.
Another concern is whether this is likely to be a concern for any buyers when we come to sell.
It’s not on a corner btw. There’s a fence to the left of the diagram, beyond which is next door’s garden. I guess another potential complication is if next door extend d the fence to claim that as their garden. It’s pretty unlikely though - the whole area is maybe 6ftx6ft.
Edited by LR90 on Monday 15th April 18:21
I had a similar situation when buying a property 5 years ago. The official boundary line differed slightly from the boundary we were shown on site, when we specifically asked the question. Resolution was fairly straightforward, the developers solicitors issued amended documents, to our solicitor, but also had to amend the plans to reflect the now different communal area to all other residents. It’s only took a week to rectify from our perspective. Our area was slinky bigger, prob 2.5 car spaces or so.
Neddy Sea Goon said:
Just to consider, if it's not yours, you,'ve no control over it
Hello and welcome to a new phone mast, telegraph pole, data cabinet or whatever.
I'd get it amended
This is a very good point, has it been done like that on purpose, is there a lampost there? comms access hatch, sewage drain etc?Hello and welcome to a new phone mast, telegraph pole, data cabinet or whatever.
I'd get it amended
Hmmm… you’re confirming what I’d suspected, to be honest.
We’re approaching exchange on this property and can’t afford to delay the purchase at all. So, realistically, it sounds like it’s either update the land registry once we’re in, or back out.
On the other hand, it’s a development of ten houses and we’ll all collectively own the land. No absentee management company or anything. All services are hooked up already, so not too worried about a new telegraph pole etc.
Decision time. Genuinely conflicted about this..
We’re approaching exchange on this property and can’t afford to delay the purchase at all. So, realistically, it sounds like it’s either update the land registry once we’re in, or back out.
On the other hand, it’s a development of ten houses and we’ll all collectively own the land. No absentee management company or anything. All services are hooked up already, so not too worried about a new telegraph pole etc.
Decision time. Genuinely conflicted about this..
Edited by LR90 on Monday 15th April 20:16
LR90 said:
Actual - here's a better view of the layout.
Interesting as there doesn't seem to be a logical reason for that piece of land and is there anything physical to delineate it?I realise that in this day and age home buyers have to put up with this stuff but the layout of that development is so random and illogical and means that common sense can't be applied to any ambiguity.
Your land could have been huge if a chunk had not been given to No 1 and their land would still have been as large as some others.
Also I am intrigued that your property is depicted in 2 colours with a dotted line across which may indicate access rights so does it have significance?
How do you feel about your car parking spaces being opposite and being surrounded with so much shared land? There is never enough parking so what stops parking on the shared area that is not designated parking? Where do 4, 5 and 6 park as there are only 2 more spaces for 3 houses? How do visitors know not to park in your 2 spaces?
You may own those 2 car parking spaces but do other properties have right of access?
New build layouts seem to be full of these ambiguities. At a previous property of detached houses a house side wall with it's foundations was the garden boundary of other property and all the neighbours' gutters encroached on other gardens and so any boundary plan was meaningless. Neighbours can start disputes over every last cm of land and the developers don't care a bit about this stuff.
Actual said:
Also I am intrigued that your property is depicted in 2 colours with a dotted line across which may indicate access rights so does it have significance?
Covenants from the 1950s that applied to the house that once occupied the site. Not really relevant any more.Actual said:
How do you feel about your car parking spaces being opposite and being surrounded with so much shared land? There is never enough parking so what stops parking on the shared area that is not designated parking? Where do 4, 5 and 6 park as there are only 2 more spaces for 3 houses? How do visitors know not to park in your 2 spaces?
Not ideal, but doesn't worry me too much. The 'shared' areas are sloping strips of grass, so not too concerned about people parking there. I accept it's a possibility that others may try and park in our area, but worst case scenario, retractable bollards are an option.dickymint said:
Have you looked at the title deeds/boundary for No.1 ?
Yes, I've got the full layout of the development. This doesn't belong to number 1 either.I'm virtually certain this is just sloppy work from the developer. They made a complete Horlicks of the parking areas too, although that is at least now resolved.
The developer have made things easy for themselves by essentially including the land in your garden. The developer of our estate has done something not dissimilar with our front garden, which is bounded by a hedge against a path into the public open space rather than being set back by a metre or so.
Yeah, they do. It's not clear on the land registry docs, but each of the other houses has parking for at least two cars.
The road outside the house isn't wide enough for two cars, so little chance of others parking in front of our house.
It's always a possibility someone will park in our parking area, but there's not much I could do about that, save for putting up a sign. The 'nuclear' option is to install bollards at some point, but will likely only do that if it's an issue.
I'm paranoid about parking issues too, for what it's worth!
The road outside the house isn't wide enough for two cars, so little chance of others parking in front of our house.
It's always a possibility someone will park in our parking area, but there's not much I could do about that, save for putting up a sign. The 'nuclear' option is to install bollards at some point, but will likely only do that if it's an issue.
I'm paranoid about parking issues too, for what it's worth!
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