Desperate first time buyer- Land registry problems

Lsfb1989

I had an offer accepted on the 14th July, for a small 1 bed end terrace. Things have been slow processing paperwork, but now it has come to light that the house has been incorrectly registered with the land registry, namely, the communal carpark and access road to the carpark is registered to the house. The house was built in 1988, and has had several owners, yet only my solicitor has picked up the problem.

Does anyone have any experience of this, mostly is it a long process? Im nearling the end of my patience, just desperate to move.

Thanks

Fire_Fox

Welcome! Are you saying you have ownership or responsibility for the road and car park? Who is is supposed to belong to or be maintained by? What does your conveyancer have to say?

Lsfb1989

It is registered to the property i want to buy, but it should be communal land, council i guess. Basically, at the moment, i would have to pay for its upkeep- and It shouldnt be that way! It was incorrectly registered in '88. My conveyancer is just not helping/ being very evasive

princeofpounds

How do you know it is incorrectly registered? The property may well own that land. Just because land is used communally doesn't mean it needs to to be owned communally.

Lsfb1989

My conveyancer has said that it is not in the propert deeds, so is wrong

AlexMac

Your solicitor should be advising on how this can be sorted out. In my experience of two lesser glitches, (when the land registry plans didn't match the reality on the ground regarding shared or communal space on a shared leasehold) it seemed a simple process involving, I think, a deed of variation (although hopefully FireFox - another more experienced poster ) might correct me if I'm wrong ). On the 1st occasion, as I was v keen to buy in a 'sellers market' I said I wasn't bothered and asked why it mattered? My solicitor made the point with some force, that when you come, eventually, to sell, a hard nosed buyer and their solicitor could bounce you into a big price cut, or even be deterred if anything's wrong with the title.

On the second occasion, a friend of mine did just that when buying in a 'buyers market'- and toughed it out with the seller.

And while these glitches involved Land Registry plan redlines which were out by a few feet, yours sounds more significant. Reminds me of the time when I worked for a Housing Association whose contractor, many years prior, had created a legal nightmare by building a whole block of flats and shops about 3m out of line- with extreme reluctance by the local Council to take over maintenance liability for a 3x 30metre strip of no-mans-land.

So I'd insist it get sorted, despite potential delay; and at your seller's expense!

Lsfb1989

My solicitor is very difficult to talk to, keeps saying that she had no more information. The other parties solicitor just doesnt seek to give any information either

Does anyone else have experience of this land registry problem? Thanks.

Fire_Fox

It's impossible to know what is going on from your description, maybe change conveyancer.

david29dpo

The LR may be correct, let me explain.
I live in the last house sold of 4 houses with a shared drive and a small communal lake, all on a plot of land which a developer bought.

So the developer can wash there hands of the whole site when the last plot is sold, it is common for the last one sold to be "given" the remaining land i.e. the drive and the lake.

However, this is only the ownership, NOT any liabilities.
The others house still have to pay any costs for repair etc which is shown on the deeds of all the houses including rights of way.

I cannot "sell" the shared parts, nothing.

Land_Registry

Lsfb1989 wrote: »

I had an offer accepted on the 14th July, for a small 1 bed end terrace. Things have been slow processing paperwork, but now it has come to light that the house has been incorrectly registered with the land registry, namely, the communal carpark and access road to the carpark is registered to the house. The house was built in 1988, and has had several owners, yet only my solicitor has picked up the problem.

Does anyone have any experience of this, mostly is it a long process? Im nearling the end of my patience, just desperate to move.

Thanks

The key here is what is the actual situation as registered. All the other posters are quite correct in their summation but every property is different and hence every highlighted issue is as well.

On large developments the builder can sell off the road and communal parts to the local authority or, as david29dpo posts, to one of the plot sales with a shared responsibility for costs re maintenance etc

My advice would be to check the title yourself to see what is actually included in the registered title you are buying - your conveyancer may have alreayd supplied you with a copy (they normally do to ask you to confirm that the extent is as per what you thought you were buying) but in this case they maye have spotted the issue themselves as most sales are of course house/garden and nothing else.

If the title does include the additional land you refer to then deciding if an 'error' has happened may prove tricky unless Land Registry simply included all the land by mistake. If the error was made by the builder in drawing up the original Transfer and plan then tracking the intent etc back to 1988 may prove tricky, especially if the builder is no more.

As david29dpo states though the intention may well have been to transfer the remaining land + house etc but you would expect the title to make this clear i.e. the transfer from the builder to the first buyer would include details re the extra land in some way and presumably rights of way over it, maintenance etc - check the title and any Transfer by the builder referred to on it.

So, to timescales - impossible to be sure but

If the error was Land Registry's i.e. the extra land was retained by the builder then the timespan should be fairly short although it is likely an effort to contact the builder (original owner) would be required, which can mean additional delay.

If the error was in drawing up the original Transfer then proving the error can be difficult especially if the builder is no more or there is no documentary evidence to prove that the Transfer did not match what was agreed to be sold/bought i.e. contract differs from final transfer. This is likely to take some time to establish as you are reliant on third parties to check and respond.

All of the above is though pure conjecture as the full facts of what is registered to the title are unclear. Confirm these details with your conveyancer and discuss the various options which might be available to you - the easiest check is to match the title to the original Transfer by the builder and doubtless your conveyancer has already done this.

NB - You make no mention of a shared-ownership/leasehold aspect to this so the deed of variation route is probably not relevant here

Finally, you can check details of the register and title plan online and obtain a copy of the Transfer (if any) by post - our online FAQs explain the process further but as stated your conveyancer is likely to already have this paperwork otherwise the problem would not have been highlighted.

squeakerton

Going through similar issue myself. We are purchasing a farmhouse with an outbuilding that is clearly included in our written deeds and has been shown on plans. Somehow, when the neighbouring barn was sold for conversion, the outbuilding was registered to that plot too. We are talking about a very dilapidated stone built coal shed, with asbestos roof, about 12ft by 5ft. Probably more of a liability than an asset..

This was spotted by our solicitor.

The neighbour didn't know that the outbuilding was on his deeds -he's never used it and always believed (rightly) that it belonged with our property. To resolve, the neighbour has to provide written confirmation to the Land Registry that he is happy for the outbuilding to be removed from his title. All fine and dandy until the neighbour's solicitor told him he should check with his lender, who have insisted on resurveying/revaluing his property (! - for a collapsing coal shed !!).

We have exchanged and will complete in the next week or so but have put in place a retention which will only be paid to the vendor if this title issue is satisfactorily resolved within 3 months of completion.

What should be a simple change has become rather drawn out and also costly - our conveyancing costs are much higher than quoted and I hate to think what it's cost our vendor. Hopefully she has agreed with the neighbour that each covers their own costs (solicitor, surveyor, Land Registry) as the it would be an issue for the neighbour too if/when he decides to sell.

Wishing you good luck !