Do I have to give neighbour access to a shared garden through my property?

Norman_Castle

According to the seller, the upstairs occupier hasn't wanted to access the garden.

Have you asked the upstairs occupier what their lease says about access.

steveinnit

Thanks for the replies..yes we will ask the solicitor to do that today..the seller's estate agent is asking the seller to check with upstairs as well so hopefully we will get some info today! I am surprised the council said the resident can't put stairs there..I wonder if when the house was annexed the freeholder also thought it would not be a problem..

SleeplessinScandinavia

If nobody knows the answer and the lease is illegible, then it sounds like the lease is 'defective' to all intents and purposes. The vendor's solicitor should be asked to rectify it (if they're interested in selling)

On the other hand, they could just have a 'Get lost: take it or leave it' attitude that I've come across before. I wouldn't be happy to buy it either, until its been sorted out

Best of luck!

tbs624

Download a copy of the lease for the flat above from HMLR and check what that says

johnnyredgate

Yes does sound like if the lease was drawn up on the basis of it being possible to put steps down to the garden and it is not the lease should be redrafted to accurately reflect the situation. As you say the top flat leaseholder has not wanted access to the garden now would be a good time to do this, and hopefully the cost share of this attributable to the flat you are interested will be bourne by the vendor. Good luck nb I would be a bit concerned about your solicitor though, how can they think it acceptable to accept an illegible lease, really he/she should have been providing you with better advice on all of this, that is what you pay them for.

Okydoky25

Would upstairs not have a copy of the lease for their own property which woud give you answers?

steveinnit

Thanks for the replies..much appreciated!
It does seem all roads lead to getting the solicitors to sort it out! Will download the hmlr document this evening..we have had lots of trouble getting our solicitors to do anything..when we applied for a mortgage the lender said we had to use them :-( Time to get back on the phone to them..

steveinnit

Okydoky25 wrote: »

Would upstairs not have a copy of the lease for their own property which woud give you answers?

The estate agent is trying to find out...

kmmr

It might be worth asking the bods over at the gardenlaw website. They have a section of Rights of Way, and I would ask them if its possible to have a RoW that runs through someone's house.

The RoW rules are pretty strict, and I think even a gate over a RoW is not allowed, so in a worst case scenario you might have to create a passageway through your home that they can use whenever they want! But I am sure that isn't the case, so I'd ask over at gardenlaw.

From a practical point of view, I would ask the seller to sort this out in advance of purchase. It may not be a big problem, but why buy someone elses problem! Plus the seller should hopefully be motivated to sort this out and save you a bunch of hassle later.

Owain_Moneysaver

kmmr wrote: »

It might be worth asking the bods over at the gardenlaw website. They have a section of Rights of Way, and I would ask them if its possible to have a RoW that runs through someone's house.

It is, actually, but this is not at issue here, because this is not a Right of Way we are talking about, but an Easement. Or it may be some form of shared ownership as noted, and not even an Easement.