Land and boundary issues with new house purchase

Konnor

Hi there,

I’m the majority of the way through the house buying process, but have hit a stumbling block with land and boundaries.

The vendors, or ‘The Chuckle Brothers’ as they should perhaps be known as, have allocated a large section of land to my plot. In the ‘complex’ there are 2 rows of 3 houses, with my plot being an end house on the front row.

They essentially had no idea how their solicitor had divided up the land and have failed to communicate this to me as a result. Having now checked, I have a large section of mostly unusable land in my boundary. Apparently tagging this onto my plot was ‘the easiest thing to do’.

The land itself is of no use to me. This is what it looks like.....

(looks like I'm not allowed to paste links with my first post. Copy these links out and paste in the address bar)

img641.imageshack.us/img641/9827/land1b.jpg
img837.imageshack.us/img837/9291/land2d.jpg
img594.imageshack.us/img594/8279/land3.jpg

My plot is the opposite side of the car park you can see in the images.

The vendors have been advised by their solicitor not to agree to remove this strip of land from the plan in order to keep all transfers drafted in similar form. The situation is being pushed to me as ‘take it or leave it’ and it’s quite unsettling.

They have said, to be taken with a pinch of salt that this whole area will be landscaped and be low maintenance. What I’m most concerned about is damage to the brick wall or the fence, and that I would foot the entire bill.

I was on the verge of exchanging, although my mortgage offer is about to expire so that will be delayed anyway. I have incurred some solicitors fees and this point would probably be the last point at which I could pull out without losing a significant amount of money. Surveys have been done and paid for. I really do want this house but don’t want to be pushed around.

I know the vendors have some investment in me purchasing the house as at my request they purchased a warranty for about £2K which was a requirement for my mortgage. My contribution to the warranty was a cheque for £300. I assume they have also been incurring costs for the 7 months plus that we have been negotiating the sale since the offer was agreed.

What would you do? I’m considering a threat to pull out of some sort and am wondering what my ultimatum could be. To change the land allocation on the deeds?

Is this likely to make a future sale difficult? Am I overly worried about this?

Is there anyway I can attempt to financially guarantee responsibility elsewhere for the fence and wall in this area?

Many thanks,

poppysarah

Does it feel like a pita before you've bought it?

It's bound to be worse after.

They're odd little bits that you'll need to look after to make them look tidy. Bushes attract rubbish, too small to mow... and what if people park half on them and damage them?

How much sleep would you lose over the money you've laid out - assuming you've not exchanged?

embob74

I assume you would be responsible for the areas which could be costly and time consuming in the future. Unless there was a way to make use of the land (i.e. additional parking you could rent out or erect garages) then I would want it off the deeds. Are the vendors selling just the one house or the complex? If they one the one house which they reside in then they have obviously had no prior problems owning the land. However if it is a vendor who is selling multiple properties I think they are just trying to pass the liability for the maintenance of the land onto you.