Porch Extension Previous Owner Built

darich

noirenex wrote: »

The guy seems nice to be honest, he said he has no objection to it, he just wants it to be above board.

iamcornholio wrote: »

This "illegality" has nothing to do with planning permission.

The porch has been built off the neighbours wall and as such is causing a trespass. The porch has not had the required permission from the neighbour, and he, or a future owner can demand its removal at any time.

Signing a bit of paper acknowledging the neighbours agreement to the porch may be a good idea. The two items within the agreement would be incumbent on the OP in any case with or without the agreement

OP has already stated that the neighbour has no objection - therefore cannot be trespassing.
With the neighbour declaring no objection, he is permitting the porch and cannot therefore demand its removal.

keystone

iamcornholio wrote: »

This "illegality" has nothing to do with planning permission.

We do not know that.

The porch has been built off the neighbours wall and as such is causing a trespass.

Technically you MAY be corect.

The porch has not had the required permission from the neighbour, and he, or a future owner can demand its removal at any time.

We do not know that either with any degree of certainty.

Signing a bit of paper acknowledging the neighbours agreement to the porch may be a good idea. The two items within the agreement would be incumbent on the OP in any case with or without the agreement

In that case why was the "agreement" reputedly signed by the OPs vendor not included in the documentation presented as part of his purchase? The Estate Agent apparently knew. The Vendor knew. The OPs solicitor "doesn't want to know". There is incompetance here and the OP should NOT be signing anything which puts them even remoely at risk until their position is made crystal clear and IMHO that can only be done on the advice of a solicitor once that solicitor has looked into the full facts.

Cheers

iamcornholio

If there is nothing in writing giving explicit consent for the porch to be attached to the wall, then it is unauthorised and the current or any future owner can insist on its removal.

As it stands, there is no proof that the neighbour agrees to the porch being attached to his house.

By signing this agreement now, then that at least acknowledges the neighbours agreement for the porch to be attached to his property and that is what is important.

Whatever may or may not have gone on in the past with the previous owner, or whatever negligence has occured as part of the conveyance, then fact remains that that porch has the prospect of needing to be removed on the whim of the neighbour or a future owner.

keystone

iamcornholio wrote: »

If there is nothing in writing giving explicit consent for the porch to be attached to the wall, then it is unauthorised and the current or any future owner can insist on its removal.

You missed my earlier post. We DO NOT explicitly know that to be a fact. Anyway what about:

noirenex wrote: »

I also got all previous ones he'd sent to owners before me,

or did you miss that?

By signing this agreement now, then that at least acknowledges the neighbours agreement for the porch to be attached to his property and that is what is important.

and by signing this agreement now the OP who has no experience in these matters whatsoever also signs up to liabilities which they may not actually have depending on what has gone before and also gives the neighbour other building rights on their walls in another part of the property. Its absolutely nuts to advise the OP to sign such a document at this stage. Would you sign it?

Whatever may or may not have gone on in the past with the previous owner, or whatever negligence has occured as part of the conveyance, then fact remains that that porch has the prospect of needing to be removed on the whim of the neighbour or a future owner.

I agree - so what? As I said earlier I would rather demolish the brute than sign what the OP is being asked to without getting proper legal advice first. What you say may, indeed, be the final outcome but it needs sorting and neither you nor I nor anyone else on this board can do that remotely for the OP. They need professional advice to look into the whole matter. The OPs neighbour has left it there for 6 years already. It hasn't got to a "thou shalt remove it" stage in that period.

Cheers

DVardysShadow

Take advice from a solicitor. Your mortgage lender probably needs to know, but you should get advice first.

sunshinetours

There was mention of an indemnity policy so if remedial action is enforced for removal or costs for obtaining correct permissions, then presumably the OP wants to do nothing at this stage otherwise that policy may be invalidated

If the OP's building is causing damage of any sort to his neighbours property then that would be an insurance matter and dealt with at the time.

Can't actually see there is anything for the OP to do at this stage apart from calmly explain all that to his neighbour

If a neighbour dispute has been witheld from the OP by the previous owner then he may well have a case against them providing he can show he has suffered a loss because of it

Loganfire

macman wrote: »

Even if it did require PP and did not get it, since it's now 6 years later it will have passed the limit for anyone to do anything about it.
Presumably he had some long standing dispute with the previous owner that has nothing to do with you.
If at some later date he alleges damage due to water ingress then he would have to prove it, and you should deal with that as and when.
Signing such a letter could be extremely prejudicial to your interests and under no circumstances should you sign it. And your insurers would take an extremely dim view of it and would probably say that by signing it you have invalidated your 3rd party liability cover in that respect.

The above is correct after six years the limit has passed so tell him to p off

sancho

iamcornholio wrote: »

By signing this agreement now, then that at least acknowledges the neighbours agreement for the porch to be attached to his property and that is what is important.

I would sign something to agree with the porch being there if I had 10k worth of water damage which would be paid for by signing said agreement

Hopeful_5

I am sure that when selling a house vendors are required to complete a form disclosing whether they have had disputes with neighbours. I know it is different circumstances but I remember a couple being successfully sued for ££££s because they did not mention the problems they had had with the antisocial family next door.

Surely, if your solicitor did not obtain such information during your conveyance then they are liable and if your vendors chose not to disclose this issue with their neighbour then they are. I recently read that Estate Agents are legally bound to disclose any problems they are aware of, but only if asked. So we should always ask that question - and in writing. I hope I remember this when/if I buy another property!

I agree that the previous owners are the bad guys in this. Apart from encroaching on their neighbour's wall without permission, the porch is built beyond the building line. I am constantly amazed at what people think they can get away with - I hope they don't in this case.

CouponWoman

I think it possible that the previous owner did have permission to build the porch.

It has been up for 6 years, thats plenty of the time for the neighbour to object.

Maybe the neighbour wasn't even living their when the porch was built.

There is more to this than we know about, and the best advise to the op is to contact her solicitors asap. Sign nothing in the meantime, in fact she does not have to sign anything anyway, no matter what excuse the neighbour comes out with.

Please contact your solicitors and mortgage providers as they "own" the house with you.

Good luck