Covenent broken and no landlord

CityBlue

Hi all,

I think I already know the answer to this but would appreciate the views of others.

From day one we have had problems with our house purchase (offer was accepted on 4th March), we are first time buyers and the house we put an offer in on was advertised as no chain. After a few weeks we were told the vendor had now found a house he wanted to buy so we were now stuck in a chain - not a huge problem for us but very annoying.

Now in the last few weeks we have uncovered other issues - the house is 11 years old and the vendor who bought it from new has never paid ground rent on it as he said nobody ever asked for it to be paid. I did some digging and found that the freehold was sold in January of this year - this was the freehold for quite a few properties on the road. Now in February this year the freehold for each individual property was sold at auction. The land registry does not reflect this sale in February so we have now way of contacting whoever bought this.

I have contacted the auction house and am waiting on response from them.

The other issue is that there is a covenant that states that you need permission for extensions - he put up a conservatory in 2004 without getting permission. My solicitor has tried to get an indemnity to cover us for this, but they would not give us one as it was deemed to be too high risk.

So this leaves us just waiting to see if we can get hold of the new landlord and see if they will grant permission for the conservatory retrospectively, my solicitor is also trying other companies to see if we can get indemnity insurance for this.

Now my instincts are telling me to walk away from this, but what are everyone else's thoughts? Hope it all makes sense

DaftyDuck

If it's an eleven-year-old house, it's unlikely to be a unique property, so something similar should be available. If an indemnity insurance judges a problem to be too-high risk, that's a serious concern. If there's a block on extensions (for that's what needing permission may turn out to be), that's a hefty handicap on you, and a huge one on resale.

If, on top of all that, the owner is playing hard-to-get, then I'd say your instincts are correct, and you are just looking for some mug to be first to back you up.

Let me take the honour of being that mug!

Edit: frankly, if the owner has made your life difficult, there's no need to walk, as such, just don't expend all that much more money following this up. Start looking elsewhere and, if you find a better property, excellent. You never know, by not pushing so hard, the seller may realise he's got to do something, and may come up with some of the lacking information. I know I'll be seen as a meanie, but, so what.. I am!:D:p:D

CityBlue

There are other similar houses in the area, however this is quite a lot cheaper than the rest - £18k cheaper than a similar house across the road - our offer is £92k so quite a big difference. I think this is the main thing that is stopping me from walking away.

Now what concerns me is when I come to sell it. What would happen if I got the indemnity in place and then tried to get permission for the conservatory after I had bought the house? Would the indemnity cover me as I had actively done something? Also if it was a major problem could the conservatory be removed? - it is only a small conservatory.

As I am a FTB I am not in any mad rush to move - living with parents at the moment so no pressure to be in for a certain date. so just waiting could be an option, however someone further up the chain is threatening to pull out if this is not resolved.

Does anyone have any experience with absent landlords / trying to buy a house where the land registry is not fully up to date?

DominicJ_2

If the freehold had been dormant for 11 years, and has just now been bought, you can be pretty sure demands for ground rent will be flying out soon enough.