Why is my house mentioned on my neighbours' sale details?

AndrewSmith

Perfectly normal, they are simply alerting potential buyers that there is a 'flying freehold' situation and that anyone buying it should get their solicitors to check the situation.

It could be argued that it will, in fact, stop any future unplesantness regarding access or rights of way etc.

Nowt to worry about there.

Lorian

Yea, IANAL but it sound OK to me. At least the new owners should move in knowing the passageway is not theirs.

seven-day-weekend

Thanks....it's to our advantage really, then.:j

What does IANAL mean?

Bossyboots

seven-day-weekend wrote:

Thanks....it's to our advantage really, then.:j

What does IANAL mean?

I am not a lawyer.

I am more concerned about your allowing them to use your garden. I hope you haven't granted them a licence over the use of that land. Might be worth asking the estate agent specifically about the garden as a potential purchaser just to see what is being said. Your neighbours may not know about the grants of licence by usage (trying not to be too technical here) so it might not be a problem but I would like to know what the estate agent says about how big the garden is.

seven-day-weekend

The picture on the website shows THEIR garden. Also the description of the garden describes their garden. No size is mentioned which I think it would be if they were trying to claim rights over the garden, as it would be twice as big as everyone else's.

We saw it more as a reciprocal arrangement : 'You can use our garden. The fee for this is that you keep it tidy'. We thought it benefited us both and saved us employing a gardener.

seven-day-weekend

Do you think it could be a problem?

missk_ensington

The Estate Agents seem to be protecting themselves, because the new buyer could plead ignorance at a later date saying they didn't know they didn't have access and that they were mis-sold etc etc.

It is a very litigious industry and the slightest error can result in court action for Mis-rep, Negligence.... which I don't think they want on their indemnity

PS. They can't claim adverse possession of your garden unless they've been trespassing for 10 years, 12years on unregistered land

Bossyboots

seven-day-weekend wrote:

Do you think it could be a problem?

Hopefully not as they probably haven't had use of it for long enough and I am surmising they do not have exclusive use either as presumably your son and his friends use it sometimes. As long as this is the case it should be fine but after my friend's BIL got embroiled in a nasty battle over a parking space a few years back I worry when I hear about people allowing others to occupy and/or use their land for any purpose.

seven-day-weekend

They have used it for around two years and as you say, my son and his friends, and the lodgers, use it too - so do we when we are in the UK.

Seems it's OK then? We won't be so accommodationg with the new neighbours!

You learn something new every day - we thought we were just helping each other out!

Bossyboots

seven-day-weekend wrote:

They have used it for around two years and as you say, my son and his friends, and the lodgers, use it too - so do we when we are in the UK.

Seems it's OK then? We won't be so accommodationg with the new neighbours!

You learn something new every day - we thought we were just helping each other out!

That sounds good. You have clearly established your continued use so I don't think you are going to have a problem with this. I would be careful in the future though as it was helping out a neighbour that led to the situation I have described above.

miss_k - I was not talking about adverse possession, but a licence to occupy/use which is different. You don't claim ownership, but the right to use the land in the manner you have been doing over a period of time, having done so with the consent of the owner of that land. The BIL mentioned above ended up in court proceedings trying to hold onto the use of their own land because they had inadvertently put themselves in the position of seemingly granting a licence to their neighbour to park their car there.