Is it a Dispute or Not?

fluffboo

Hi,
Ive accepted an offer on the house and I am currently filling in the "Property Information Form" for the Solicitor. One of the questions relates to "disputes or compaints regarding this property or a property nearby..". I was going to tick No when I remembered something that happened quite a few years ago after I'd lived here a couple of years (so probably 2001ish). My property is heigher than the neighbouring property on one side and there is a 15-20 foot dry stone retaining wall between us which I own (I think because it retains my land?). The neighbours are an elderly couple who we get on with well (just small talk and Christmas cards etc..) and during this one conversation he mentioned that the person who I had bought the house off had received some money when they had bought the house which was meant to do repairs to this retaining wall (for a small bulge I think) but none were done. I had no knowledge of this and it was never mentioned by my solicitor when I bought the house (so I assume they ticked No on the form) - I said I'd look into it and asked a friend who was a builder (and lives across the road) to look into it - he said the wall could be ok for 10 years or 100 years and he said he would periodically check the wall to ensure it wasn't "moving". Anyway now we are 8 years on and nobody has mentioned it since - we are still on friendly terms with the neighbour - the wife even wrote a letter of support to an insurance firm for them which they were very happy with.

Is this a dispute? Should I ask the Solictor\Neighbour for clarification or will it become a can of worms?

We need to move so we have accepted an offer at the bottom of our range so we don't really want to have to spend any extra money resolving this.

Any help appreciated.

Catblue

Nope, not a dispute at all. Just tick No.

soulsaver

Not a dispute... but you'll be asked if you '...know of any problems' in enquiries before contract... which will bring you back to a similar dilemma.

Darren09

There does not seem to be a dispute. You should take advise from your solictor if you are ever in doubt.

BitterAndTwisted

I seems to me that in order to have a dispute, you need to have someone to be in dispute with. In this case there seems to have been none.

Who did the previous owner receive this sum of money from, to repair the wall?

fluffboo

The suggestion was that they received some money from the person they bought it off (either off the price or a one-off sum) to put towards any work that was required. I had no idea about this and now we are coming to sell I don't want this to become a stumbling block - there are questions that refer to "disputes" or even "conversations" with neighbours which "could affect the property or properties nearby".
I want to do the right thing but the person I bought it off made no declaration of this and in effect lied by ommision. The builder I had look at it though that that nothing really needed doing and the neighbour hasn't mention this again in the many years since.
Im worried that if I talk to the solicitor about this they will just take the jobsworth approach that it must be declared and if I ask (and remind) the neighbour about this they will of course say that they are not happy and want x hundreds/thousands pounds of work doing.
This also may scare off the current buyers who have got the house at a good price so we don't really want to pay/reduce any more.

The neighbours can see that my house is sold and yet they have not approached me - which they would if it is still a problem (wouldn't they?)

Am I worrying about nothing?

not_loaded

fluffboo wrote: »

…Am I worrying about nothing?

Yes.

In this sense a dispute means an unresolved problem. You don’t have that.