Who is at fault here.....

[ianmantra]

Hi, Hoping that someone on this forum can give me some definitive advice for my sister who is in a state of shock.

Situation is that she purchased her home 8 years ago, in the selling agents booklet it showed a picture of the property with a red line around the land boundary. Now the previous owners of her property did not originally have access to the rear of the property for parking and any access was only down a driveway that belonged to a very large house to the rear of her property. So the previous owners negotiated with the owner of the large house to obtain access to the rear of the property which also entailed buying a small strip of land from them that went from that driveway to the rear of their property thereby giving access directly to the garden to allow parking. The agents picture clearly showed the boundary that included this piece of land that joined the driveway.
A couple of years ago my sister received a letter from the owner of the large house to say there was going to be some maintenance work carried out on the drive and in accordance to the agreement previously set up she was entitled to pay a percentage of those costs, which duly paid without question.
So far so good but then her neighbour died who lived in the house that was the other part of the semi, the house was sold, done up and put back on the market. Someone who decided to purchase the house has been in contact with my sister and say that she wants access for parking at the rear of that house and the only way that would be possible would be to cross the small piece of land that leads into my sisters back garden, which really is not suitable as my sister parks her car on that piece of land. The woman became very nasty towards my sister but my sister just ignored her. The house next door was not advertised as having any parking at the rear of the property, so my sister just thought tough, she should have read that before offering to buy it.

A few days later she confronted my sister again saying she wanted access, my sister declined only to be told by the woman its nothing to do with my sister as that little piece of land is still owned by the previous owners and the woman said that she would approach them and buy it and then stop my sister having access. Having checked with the Land Registry this would appear to be the case, the land was not included in the sale of the house to my sister. So I guess you now realise why she is in a state of shock!

Can anyone offer her any definitive advice that might be positive!!

Any help would be most appreciated and asap.

Thank

[charitynjw]

Re: Who is at fault here.....

Would this help?
http://www.boundary-problems.co.uk/b...easements.html

Welcome to LB btw.

[des8]

Re: Who is at fault here.....

Your sister needs to contact the people who acted as her conveyancers in the purchase to see what their records show regarding this parcel of land.

The fact that a change of ownership wasn't registered, doesn't necessarily mean that ownership has not transferred, although proving it might be problematic.

She might have to contact the sellers to see what they have to say

Has the owner of the large house over whose driveway your sister accesses her rear garden, agreed to give the same rights of access to your sisters new neighbour?
If not, and if she is not willing, there will be little point in the neighbour trying to purchase that land.

[ianmantra]

Re: Who is at fault here.....

Hi Again
Thanks to the 2 respondents so far.
Have looked at the link, well the page that comes up. Read through the contents and to be totally honest I'm none the wiser regarding my sisters predicament.
Des8....My sister called their office late last week about this and their response was that they could not find the file relating to her purchase!! So today we drew up a letter and delivered it to the company that acted on my sisters behalf, enclosing copies of the selling agents brochure, a copy of the title deeds of her house, a copy of the title deeds to the piece of land that my sister is certain she had been sent by that company at the time of purchase and a copy of a letter that the owner of the large house received from the company acting on this ladies behalf asking if access rights would be available to his client.

On the front page of the sales brochure it clearly states that there is off road parking, on the 2nd page this is repeated and on the 3 page a nice colour aerial photo of the property showing a red line around the boundary that clearly showed the small piece of land in question being included!

My sister has tried to contact the previous owners but to no avail and currently the owner of the large house has intimated that access will not be given......if that remains the case then you are right, who would buy that piece of land that has no access. But.....who knows what may happen if his palm is crossed with silver....

How ever my sister is also concerned about her situation when she comes to sell her house in the future if this matter is not rectified now to her satisfaction. She is retired and knows that the house/garden will one day be far to much for her to manage so a move is not to far in the future.

Thanks again for your responses, they are appreciated.

[des8]

Re: Who is at fault here.....

It does appear likely that the conveyancers have messed up, and have some sorting out to do!
Await their response to the letter.

Was the conveyance carried out by a firm of solicitors?

Possibly contact the vendors solicitors if all else fails eventually?

[ianmantra]

Re: Who is at fault here.....

Hello again,

Yes the conveyancing was carried out by a firm of solicitors.

When you say if all else fails contact the vendor's solicitors, is this in relation to requesting their file regarding the original purchase of the property? or for something else. I can only imagine that any request for their file would result in a confidentiality issue and therefore prevent the sharing of said file.

Thanks again for replying.

[des8]

Re: Who is at fault here.....

I would hope that the solicitors, on being told of the problem, would contact their client to obtain clearance to release details.
Even if this was not possible they should be able to send copies of documents which were sent originally to and from your sisters conveyancer as these should be in the conveyancer's file already.
At least it might be worth a try, although the conveyancer will have to eat humble pie and confess to having lost a file!