undisclosed declined planning permission when buying house

walshy.walsh

Hi
i wonder if any of you legal bods may be able to advise me.
We bought a house earlier this year, as a repossesion, so not directly from the previous occupiers. now the house has had a driveway put in place of the front garden, and the front wall replaced with pair of gateposts. the house was advertised as having a designer driveway, and the off street parking was a major plus in our decision to go ahead and buy the property. the only thing that was required, was the lowering of the front kerb. now after having spoken to the highways department at our council, it seems that on a main road, planning permission is required, has also been applied for and declined to the previous owners on the grounds of it being too close to a traffic island, and they are not prepared to reverse that decision. Do we have any comeback on A. the repossesion company who we bought the house off B. the estate agent for advertising as having a driveway, when clearly without permission it is no more use than a piece of playground. C. our conveyensor for not informing us

Thanks in advance

neilmcl

No, no and no.

A, what's it got to do with the repo co.?

B, The fact that there's no drpped kerb doesn't negate the fact that there's a driveway.

C, It's got nothing to do with the person who did your conveyancing.

Ultimately this is something YOU should have checked before going ahead with the purchase.

walshy.walsh

i thought thats what i paid my solicitor to do when he did the searchs. and the fact that i have to drive over a footpath surely does make it something other than a driveway surely?

Proc

neilmcl wrote: »

B, The fact that there's no drpped kerb doesn't negate the fact that there's a driveway.

True. And technically, you're right. I would imagine though that because there is no dropped kerb, it won't be illegal to park in front of it. Therefore OP could potentially get home from work, someone's blocked their driveway and OP has no recourse.

I don't think you've got much of a leg to stand on though. Solicitors will blame estate agents, estate agents will blame etc etc.

Can you not make your own dropped kerb? E.g. a large toblerone-shaped wedge to put against the pavement to create a little ramp? Or give a friend a couple of hundred quid to come round in the day time, wear a bright jacket, place some traffic cones around, and dig up the section of pavement. Report to council and just hope the workers that come see fit to put a dropped kerb in place

mynameisdave

walshy.walsh wrote: »

i thought thats what i paid my solicitor to do when he did the searchs. and the fact that i have to drive over a footpath surely does make it something other than a driveway surely?

You'd have to drive over the footpath if there was a dropped kerb, wouldn;t you?

walshy.walsh

mynameisdave wrote: »

You'd have to drive over the footpath if there was a dropped kerb, wouldn;t you?

yes, BUT according to the council, without the dropped kerb, legally i am not allowed to cross it with a vehicle. once the kerb has been lowered, it then becomes a right of way.

fthl

you might have a claim if you asked the question. If you didn't, then you are stuffed.

patman99

My mate and his neighbours have all been parking on their front gardens for years. When the council relaid the path, the contractors just put in dropped kerbs even though no permissions had ever been saught.