Invalid Defective title indemnity

srellig

Can anybody please advise me?
We recently acquired a property which had no mention of a right of way within its deeds. As such we were advised to insist that our sellers purchased a defective title indemnity so that we would be covered if there was any future issues.
As soon as we moved in and attempted to use the right of way we were challenged by our neighbours who explained that the previous owners had declared to them that there was a problem on their Deeds(that we had no legally granted rights of way) and had therefore bought an indemnity to cover future buyers. Our neighbours insist that we cannot use the indemnity to cover their challenge as all indemnity policies have a clause where if they are disclosed as ours has been it becomes invalid.
Is this true or are we worrying over nothing???

Any help would be gratefully received.

Imp

I wouldn't listen to you neighbour or your seller. I would very quickly listen to your solicitor.

Debt_Free_Chick

srellig wrote: »

Our neighbours insist that we cannot use the indemnity to cover their challenge

Well, they would, wouldn't they :rolleyes: They don't want you to challenge them as they may be in the wrong

as all indemnity policies have a clause where if they are disclosed as ours has been it becomes invalid

There's an element of truth in that as insurance tends to cover "the possibility" of an event occurring rather than the certainty of it. So if your neighbour and the previous seller were locked in Court over the issue, it's unlikely you would have got insurance.

But if the situation was simply "unclear" or "in dispute" your insurance may well be valid.

As Imp says, this is one for your solicitor - even if you just clarify what the insurance covers.

In the meantime, I'd be inclined to stay on good terms with your neighbour, whilst ignoring his/her bullying tactics. Wait for him/her to make the next move - but be sure that you check with your solicitor about the coverage of the indemnity policy.