About to exchange, half of garden owned by council

Fatboy40

We're right on the verge of exchanging contract, tomorrow afternoon ! (25/2/2010), and our solicitor has just made us aware that half of the rear garden of the property is owned by the council and the current owners pay rent on it.

Now up until 45 minutes ago we were never informed of this.
A secondary school was knocked down about 8 years ago, and the land was used for housing, and the homes adjoining this land all bought a portion of it to extend their gardens but the people in the one we're buying chose to rent it instead (plonkers !).

So as things stand they pay £25 each month to the council. The garden backs on to the garden of one of the new homes.

As I see it the following could occur...

# We take it on the chin and take on the £25 per month.

# We buy the land from the council (at maybe £2,000 at most ?)

# We exchange contracts and then refuse to pay the council, who will end up with a small plot of land with no access at all for them as it's surounded by other gardens (which do not match the shape of this small plot of land so it's allmost 99.9% certain that they'd hav eno interest in it).

What do others think I should do ? (I've got about 24 hours to make a decision)

Cannon_Fodder

Don't think your Lender will allow you to proceed with such an iffy boundary situation, as it could affect their ability to secure full value, should the need arise.

If you are a cash buyer, you can of course choose to ignore the problem and hope it goes away.

Get an accurate valuation, or find out what a neighbour paid and adjust for inflation, perhaps - £2k is nearly 7 years, if it turns out to be £8k, you may wish you rented...

lincroft1710

Council have already had about £2,400 in rent and the rent will automatically cease being paid when house is sold (unless vendor forgets to cancel SO/DD). I'd offer to take land off their hands for nothing but agree to pay their legal costs.

Fatboy40

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Council have already had about £2,400 in rent and the rent will automatically cease being paid when house is sold (unless vendor forgets to cancel SO/DD). I'd offer to take land off their hands for nothing but agree to pay their legal costs.

Now that's smart thinking, thanks for that !.

violettasomerset

the rent will automatically cease being paid when house is sold

There might be the chance however that if you no longer pay rent on it, the council might offer it for sale or rent to one of the other surrounding houses - and so you'll lose half your new garden.

Richard_Webster

Unless the seller pointed out the boundary to the mortgage lender's surveyor when he came round, OP's solicitor will have an obligation to report the point to the lender to check it doesn't alter their valuation. This is unlikely, but possible, and solicitors cannot take the chance. This will delay things.

Seller's fault for not making it clear to OP when he looked round.

sunshinetours

Fatboy40 wrote: »

We're right on the verge of exchanging contract, tomorrow afternoon ! (25/2/2010), and our solicitor has just made us aware that half of the rear garden of the property is owned by the council and the current owners pay rent on it.

Now up until 45 minutes ago we were never informed of this.
A secondary school was knocked down about 8 years ago, and the land was used for housing, and the homes adjoining this land all bought a portion of it to extend their gardens but the people in the one we're buying chose to rent it instead (plonkers !).

So as things stand they pay £25 each month to the council. The garden backs on to the garden of one of the new homes.

As I see it the following could occur...

# We take it on the chin and take on the £25 per month.

# We buy the land from the council (at maybe £2,000 at most ?)

# We exchange contracts and then refuse to pay the council, who will end up with a small plot of land with no access at all for them as it's surounded by other gardens (which do not match the shape of this small plot of land so it's allmost 99.9% certain that they'd hav eno interest in it).

What do others think I should do ? (I've got about 24 hours to make a decision)

I hope you choose not to proceed with number 3. Its not the council's fault that the current owner chose not to purchase

dander

Firstly, don't rush, just don't exchange tomorrow. Don't exchange until the matter is sorted to your satisfaction.

Personally, If I thought I was buying a house with the entire plot of land I would now want to find out how much it will cost to purchase the land from the council and then either take that off the sale price or tell the vendors that you want them to buy the land. I certainly wouldn't "take it on the chin" if they have been dishonest about what exactly they are selling you.

Richard_Webster

Firstly, don't rush, just don't exchange tomorrow. Don't exchange until the matter is sorted to your satisfaction.

Personally, If I thought I was buying a house with the entire plot of land I would now want to find out how much it will cost to purchase the land from the council and then either take that off the sale price or tell the vendors that you want them to buy the land. I certainly wouldn't "take it on the chin" if they have been dishonest about what exactly they are selling you.

I agree, seller's fault for not being upfront.

silvercar

We exchange contracts and then refuse to pay the council, who will end up with a small plot of land with no access at all for them as it's surounded by other gardens (which do not match the shape of this small plot of land so it's allmost 99.9% certain that they'd hav eno interest in it).

In practice you would then be trespassing if you used it. If this piece of land is now land-locked a pro-active council will offer it to one of the other properties that are adjacent. More likely one of the property owners will ask the council if they can buy it.

Do you want this piece of land or not? If you don't really want it consider whether a smaller garden would effect the value of your property.

Fatboy40

Thanks for the input everyone.

My solicitor will be calling back this moring with more info, which I hope she does as to be honest this should have been brought up a long time ago (she's not that great to be honest (but not bad enough to comlain to her), and I used to be the IT Manager of a law firm for seven years so I've got a valid opinion on this).

Our problem is that if we sign today I know we'll be in the house in two weeks time from tomorrow, so our six month ordeal of selling/buying will be over which is what my wife and I want (it's not been easy). But having said that I'd love to see the contract that the current owner signed to rent the land as it would give us an idea of what to expect.

Unless things change I expect that we'll sign today, and then just sit and wait for the council to contact us as the new owners. We could be lucky and Hampshire County Council could take years to work out what's going on so we get the time to save up to buy the land, or they could immediately contact us and drawn out negotiations begin