Selling a seperate garage

[mummanoble]

Hi all.

I'm after some advice please. Three months ago, we decided to sell our garage (which is in a block around 200m from our house). We just don't use it and know of a number of neighbours have sold theirs for quite considerable sums. The garage is on our house title deeds and we have permission from the mortgage company to sell it (funnily enough it doesn't add any value to the house - on paper). We've now got a buyer and have instructed a solicitor to handle the sale (including splitting the title).

Here's where it gets complicated - two weeks ago, we put our house on the market (without the garage) and have received a full asking price offer (from buyers who know the garage is being sold seperately). Today, we also had our offer accepted on a house we love.

This is where I started panicking... Do we need to wait until the garage sale is finalised (and the title split) before instructing a solicitor to handle our house sale/purchase? I'm worrying that the garage sale could take months and in that time we could lose our buyers/new house, so am hoping/praying it's not the case.

Any help or advice anyone can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

[atticus]

Don't panic. I doubt this is a problem. You have instructed a solicitor: he/she will be able to advise you.

[mummanoble]

Atticus, thank you. I've been up most the night worrying about this.

[HappyGilmore]

I'm in a similar situation - I brought a house, where I was told the physically adjoined garage was sold off separately. However, Land registry cancelled the application for the garage and are now processing the house application. The cancelled garage application has now been re-submitted to be processed after the house application.

The thing is - I'm sure the property was on a mortgage for the previous owner/ house seller who actually was an executor of the estate and not the owner as they had passed on.

It is my understanding that the mortgage lender at the time would have needed to consent to the sale of the garage first and then the house for sales to be valid. I don't think any such consent was given and possibly the house sellers solicitors banked on the garage application to be rejected so that after the house sale and effectively the mortgage lender released the whole charge for the house and garage, they could re-submit a deed of release that had only become possible from the sale of the house in subsequent order, after the garage.

So, would I be right in objecting to the garage sale/application lodged after the house, as there was 1) No right to sell the garage in the first place due to no consent from mortgage lender and 2) We were misinformed that the garage was sold - (when it technically could not have been as the mortgage had not been paid off/ the seller was not the freehold owner out right).

I'm not sure if this is hinging on fraud in that if it were to be allowed, would mean the garage would be allowed to be sold, from the purchase of the house unlocking the right to sell, though the garage technically would be the new title owner's and not that still of the previous owner/executer of the estate to sell.

One more plot twist is that the land is connected to a rentchief that collects ground rent from all properties on the estate of land - If this house and garage sale were to be allowed, would need to be proportioned appropriately and perhaps even they would need to consent to such separate sale of their land in the first place?

Any expert advise would be thoroughly appreciated as my post completion solicitor/conveyancer has been nothing but unresponsive for the past 2 months - I have chased again today and if I again have no response tomorrow, will ask for someone else if possible.

- Yes, I moved into the house around December 2022 and am still waiting for land registry completion - The garage remains empty and unused. I am not in contact with the garage buyer but believe they do not wish to use it until it is completely and legally theirs to do so.

Thanks in advance,