Bought new house, parking not as advised

samspam

Kevin,

Call your solicitor and ask them to look into it for you. They are far more knowledgable on these matters then any if us!

mi-key

This is precisely one of the reasons why my wife and I are only looking at buying houses that have driveways big enough to fit two cars on ( plus a garage for my bike ) ! We have rejected a couple of houses that looked OK, but when we went to look at the outside realised that our two cars wouldnt fit on the drive, and there wasnt space outside the house to park without blocking others drives.

I cant understand these modern developers - I reckon 90% of people buying new builds have at least two cars - so why not account for this when desiging the estate ? I know a lot of new houses have garages, but you'd be hard pressed to fit a modern saloon in most of them ( and close the door ).

kevinyork

UPDATE:

After months of letters between my Solicitor and I and the House Builder and I, here is an update:

Persimmon, the builder, confirmed that the visitor spaces were deeded to the owners of the adjacent spaces and that the Legal Transfers for all properies included a right to temporarily park a visitors vehicle in these visitor spaces. Indeed they wrote two letters in the last few months reminding all residents of that right to try and stop the parking problem.

However, it now appears that Persimmon 'forgot' to include the issue of Visitor parking in any of the documents used for the legal transfer.

As a result the visitor spaces have been jointly deeded ok to the adjacent plot owners but no one else on the road has any legal right to use them.

This contradicts what we were told when the Sales Office took us through the plans for the development and all of the letters Persimmon have issued up to this point. I think Persimmon know they have slipped up as the letter they sent advising that after investigation visitor parking was not covered by any legal documents says if we are reffering it to our legal advisors then their legal contacts name is etc etc.

We have contacted the council who have tentatively agreed that the planning permission was granted to the builder on the basis that there would be visitor parking available.

Now we are left wondering if there is anything we can do. How do we stand if we were specifically told, and the builder is accepting that we were told, that all properties would have a right to allow their visitors to park in the visitor bays however this right has not been conveyed by the legal documents.

I believe that it was down to us to ensure that the wording in the conveyancing documents was correct but who reads all of those? When buying from the country's biggest house builder you would think the legal documents would be correct.

We are wondering if we have a case or not. Effectively we have lost an asset we believed formed part of our purchase price. Could we sue for loss of that amenity? We have legal cover on our house policy which covers any legal issues.

Any knowledgable advice very gratefully received.


Kev

Rick62

I would have thought that you have good cause for compensation, in which cse speak to your lawyer.

the other possibility is talk to the council, they should take steps to ensure the developer meets the requirements which formed the basis for their planning consent. Maybe.

MJMum

however this right has not been conveyed by the legal documents

Tricky one. Where does the responsibility lie? As you point out, you should have made sure that you bought the right to the visitors' spaces. Arguably, your solicitor is at fault, but if you didn't inform him that you thought this was included, then he should he have been expected to know? Sorry, I'm not sure what the answer is, but I do sympathise. We just sold a house up a drive shared by 5 houses, lots of confusion over the parking bays, and swore up and down blind that we will never, ever own a property with any communal facilities again (sorry!)

zag2me

hehe I live in a block of 6 flats with 6 allocated parking spaces. Only 2 of us have cars, so I have room for 5 visitors at any one time

kevinyork

zag2me wrote:

hehe I live in a block of 6 flats with 6 allocated parking spaces. Only 2 of us have cars, so I have room for 5 visitors at any one time

er....useful that, thanks. I think.

dmg24

zag2me wrote:

hehe I live in a block of 6 flats with 6 allocated parking spaces. Only 2 of us have cars, so I have room for 5 visitors at any one time

Really unhelpful comment.

Kevinyork,

What a nightmare situation. Someone is definitely liable for this mess, but I really couldn't say whether it would be Persimmon or your solicitor. I would recommend getting advice from another solicitor, as the likelihood of your original solicitor readily accepting the blame is low!

Keep in touch with how you get on x

mrsS_2

surely every other house in your cul de sac is affected by this issue? I cant believe that every solicitor for every sale is at fault?

I would go for the council as my first option-if planning permission is only granted for certain developments with a certain number of parking spaces, I believe the council can force the builder to rectify this-

ie get the builder to pay for this- not you.

gelato_cat

I would do it sooner rather than later, if you can, otherwise it might seem like you're condoning it.

Is it possible for you to park on your drive, but blocking him in? Then he will have to come to you when he wants to get his car out, giving you an opportunity to point out that he shouldn't have been there in the first place

Suze

SaraSeahorse wrote:

Their son lives locally and visits regularly and stops in the entrance to the drive slap bang in the MIDDLE. GRRRRRRRRRRRR

I hate having to approach people and wil have to at some point speak to them about their selfish git of a son.