First a Statutory Declaration,now Indemnity Policy!

Bluefusion

I have lived in my current house for over 8 years. The house has a dropped curb so I can drive my car onto my drive/frontgarden. Between my drive and the dropped curb is the public pavement which also has a small piece of grass directky infront of myproperty boundary, infact all the houses down the street do.

I am selling this house and the buyer's solicitors questioned who owned this piece of grass/land? To me this should be public highway, but after he did the local searches and contacted the local authority they said they did not own it.

My solicitor told me that it should belong to the local authority, but there is alot of small pieces of land like this that slip through the net.

I had to swear a statutory declaration that to my knowledge no one owned that land and that I have been using it to access my property for the last eight years and I thought that was the end of it.

But I have just recieved a letter from my solicitors saying that the buyer now wants a legal indemnity policy relating to this portion of land and for me to pay the costs of £250.00

We are really on a tight budget and I was not excpecting this to crop up, as it was never picked up when we bought the house eight years ago.

Is this something we have to pay? Or are there other options like splitting the cost, or even saying that I have sworn the declaration and that should be enough?

Advice Please.

pawpurrs

Sometimes a soliceter will request one, but that does not mean the buyer will pull out if you dont do it.
Indemenitys are generally money for old rope, that really must be the buisness to be in!
My sol unbenown to me requested one on the property we are in the process of buying as there is a missing documents that dates back years, this was not picked up when my vendors purchased the property, and is unlikely to cause a problem, the soliceter even said to me, if they wont pay I wouldnt bother, so dont know why he asked for it then!
You can sayyou are not prepared to pay for it, but if it comes dwn to it its not worth losing the sale over,surely.

never_enough

I wouldn't lose the sale over it. If you're really that strapped for cash maybe you could suggest you split the cost with the purchaser? Or say no, but be prepared for them to walk away from the sale.
Just thought. If you have a dropped kerb wont the council have some record of it? Or is that only if they've put one in recently? Might be worth giving them a call.