Deed of rectification or indemnity insurance?

anugs

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help.

I am currently in the middle of purchasing a property (we made an offer at the end of January).

The house we are buying is ex council and has had the same owners since it was built - 1950. (They are deceased so the property is being sold by their family).

Our solicitor noticed on the deeds that the passageway between our house and next door is not included in the deeds - our front garden leads to it and our back garden leads from it and it has doors at both end and the gardens are only accessible from our house (the neighbors do not have a right of way over this land).

The people who own the house have used it as their own since they bought it off the council in the 70s.

The council have done an inspection of the property and have said that the neighbours may have to get involved.

At this our solicitor has advised that we look for another property as he knows cases like this that have taken 12-18 months.

From hearing this we obviously got very worried so i downloaded the deeds of the neighbours who may have to get involved and have realised that the neighbours house is actually owned by the council.

We are hoping that this will make getting the deeds rectified more straight forward. But unfortunately our solicitor and the vendors solicitor are proving very hard to get hold of so I was wondering if anyone had experienced anything like this?

Also the estate agent says an indemnity insurance would cover it but our solicitor didn't seem to think so - would an indemnity insurance be enough?

To be honest i'm being told one thing by the solicitor and one thing by the estate agent - and i know the solicitor is the one with the legal training but we find it hard to believe that it will take as long as he says. But we don't want to pay put a huge amount of legal fees trying to get this sorted out.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

Richard_Webster

Oh dear, you have contacted the Council and they own the land over which you would have the right of way. Pity. Can't now get a lack of access indemnity policy.

Sellers might be able to obtain a title by adverse possession but they would have to demonstrate that - if they make a claim and the Council has to accept that it has been used only by the sellers and their predecessors for more than 12 yaers they may concede the point and the Land Registry may add the passageway to the title. it won't be quick but unless the Council fight the case it should only take 6-8 weeks.

anugs

Thanks richard,

its actually a mistake on the deeds - all the other houses which have been bought on that street do own the pasageway unfortunately the mistake was made when the current owners bought the property - as the neighbour (the council) have no access to it - i'm pretty hopeful that they wouldn't want to fight for it -they would literally have to put a hole through a wall to get it.

I can handle 6 - 8 weeks - although the sooner the better - our mortgage offer runs out in june!

Also i thought it was the council who were contacted to amend the deeds - are land registry and the county council not linked?