Possessory Title, Sewer in garden, Underpinning.....

moochd

Hello everyone.

Looking for some advice please.

Me and my wife have had an offer accepted on a property 13th December, and we have accepted an offer on ours. A property developer is buying ours (a cash buyer, no chain), and we are buying from a property from a property developer, so again no chain.

The house we are buying is immaculately finished, inside and out, and we both fell in love with the place as soon as we walked in. However, our solicitors have found several issues that are quite concerning.

1. There is public sewer in the back garden. Solicitors advise that this is not neccessarily a problem, providing it is at least 3 metres away from the house.

2. There are no title deeds (or they cannot be found)!!! We will have possessory title - whats worrying us is what if the deeds ever show up before the 12 years required to obtain absolute title? Do we lose the house?

3. Underpinning. The house has been underpinned in february last year. All of the work is guaranteed for 10 years. The work was carried out in Feb 2009, by the builder, so not through any claim on insurance.

Now reading up in this, this is potentially a big problem. Home insurance seems to be a grey area - I've called our current home insurer and they advised that it would be referred to their underwriters for a decision, mentioned we would perhaps need to get a survey done (not cheap, i'm sure), and even then there is no guarantee of cover.

I'm led to believe that a properly underpinned home is not very likely to have any further issues down the line. The vendor has been upfront with us, in all the docs passed to our solicitors, confirm everything he has mentioned, and we really really want this house!

Are we crazy??? :eek:

G_M

moochd wrote: »

Hello everyone.


1. There is public sewer in the back garden. Solicitors advise that this is not neccessarily a problem, providing it is at least 3 metres away from the house. Not a major problem buth check how many properties it serves, Plus are you ever likely to want to extend? Build a conservatory? You'll have trouble building on top of the sewer.

2. There are no title deeds (or they cannot be found)!!! We will have possessory title - whats worrying us is what if the deeds ever show up before the 12 years required to obtain absolute title? Do we lose the house? Be careful with this. I take it it's unregistered? But a property developer? So how long ago did they buy it? Sounds strange cos any sale in the last, ooooh, 20 + years? would be registered! I assume therefore that the developer only has possessory title.

3. Underpinning. The house has been underpinned in february last year. All of the work is guaranteed for 10 years. The work was carried out in Feb 2009, by the builder, so not through any claim on insurance. You'll always have insurance problems. Most cheap online insurers will turn you down flat. Although the underpinning may be fine, insurerers hate subsidence.


Are we crazy??? :eek:

Personally I'd walk away unless the property is unique/just what you want/very cheap or otherwise irresitable.

Doozergirl

Re: underpinning. Why? Was it to build an extension or was it because the house was subsiding? If it's to extend then underpinning is absolutely fine.

What I would be thinking about though is the location of the sewer and the location of the underpinning and making sure they don't correlate, iyswim. Where does the drainage search show the sewer? Is it a shared sewer between a few houses or is it a main sewer?

moochd

Doozergirl wrote: »

Re: underpinning. Why? Was it to build an extension or was it because the house was subsiding? If it's to extend then underpinning is absolutely fine.

What I would be thinking about though is the location of the sewer and the location of the underpinning and making sure they don't correlate, iyswim. Where does the drainage search show the sewer? Is it a shared sewer between a few houses or is it a main sewer?

Thanks G_M & Doozergirl :beer:

It has had a substantial extension to the rear of the property, carried out 20+ years ago, turning the kitchen & dining room into a large open plan family diner. one half of the room (the original house) has floorboards under-foot, however in the extended part, there is a concrete floor.

The developer bought the house in jan/feb 2009 at auction. The owners prior where an old couple. The house has had a complete re-furb, new GCH in place, electrics completely re-wired and double glazing installed.

The sewer is a main sewer, situated at the very back of the garden, so confident that the whole "within 3 metres" wont be an issue.