Right of way across property to garage - house purchase

monkeysrevenge

Morning all

We're at the conveyancing stage of our house purchase now, but might have come accross a problem - we're buying with a mortgage and it appears the property we're buying hasn't ever been registered with LR. On doing some research this doesn't appear to be too much of a problem in itself.

The issue is an apparent lack of official easement across the neighbour's property to the rear of the vendor's property, where there is a garage. I'll try and describe the layout;

We are buying the left of two semi detached houses. The driveway is to the right of the right hand house, goes along the side of the houses then splits to the left (to the garage of the house we're buying) and straight on to their garage. They pretty much have no garden as it is tarmacked (sp?) across their property.

This was apparently done as a 'joint venture' by the owners of both houses who each paid 50% of the cost to have it laid, which I gather was about 12 years ago, and they've had access across the property with no issues at all (I gather). I've checked the title deeds of the neighbour myself through LR, and there are no notes regarding any right of way across their land at all. I obviously can't get access to the deeds of the house we're buying as they haven't been registered yet.

Does anyone with any experience of this have any info as to the additional cost and time in sorting this, and the process in doing so? I'm a bit concerned that this could turn into a major problem...

Thanks

TonyMMM

Get the vendors to sort out formal access rights via their solicitors ( at their cost) otherwise you walk away from the deal.

I would expect your own solicitor to advise you not to go ahead, but if this is left as an informal arrangement you could end up with an unsaleable property.

monkeysrevenge

Thanks Tony - I presume even as informal access, is there any sort of "assumed" right of passage? i.e. both parties agreed and paid for the shared driveway at the time and have used it without problem for many years?

TonyMMM

And if one party moves on and the new occupants suddenly decide they don't like the arrangement ?? Access given by permission can be withdrawn at any time.

Lawyers love cases like this because they drag on for ages and cost a fortune to sort out.

Get them to sort it properly on the deeds or walk/run away. You have a solicitor advising you ? Talk to them.

ValHaller

monkeysrevenge wrote: »

Thanks Tony - I presume even as informal access, is there any sort of "assumed" right of passage? i.e. both parties agreed and paid for the shared driveway at the time and have used it without problem for many years?

Don't look for excuses which might make this go away in your mind. And don't accept them from the vendors either.

You have 3 choices here

• Walk away
• ignore the value of the garage and reduce your offer if you are happy to accept that the garage may become unusable
• dig your heels in and insist that your vendor sorts out an easement registered at the Land Registry on both properties, which is permanent and transferable with your property. This should be at vendor's expense unless you were informed of the legal position before you put your offer in.

Hoping this will be covered by time will lead to years of uncertainty, possibly a court case and will hamper any onward sale.

Inevitably, if you do buy without sorting this, you will either lose the value of the garage or yo will end up having to sort it yourself legally. It will probably be very difficult for the vendor to sort - but it will be more expensive and harder for you to take on.

Also be prepared for a delay of 3 or 4 months for the vendor to come to his senses, see the need to do it and win the neighbour around. You'll almost certainly get a load of bluster at first about how there is no need. I have been there as buyer and persevered and got my way. If you have a chain below you, you may be better off moving on from this one - otherwise, if you can wait for it to be sorted, they are unlikely to have other offers which go much further forwards once this issue is discovered.

monkeysrevenge

Thanks, might call the solicitors this afternoon and ask the question. I presume the right of access needs to be on both sets of deeds and not just the house we're buying - hopefully the neighbours will be co-operative so things go smoothly...!

ValHaller

monkeysrevenge wrote: »

Thanks, might call the solicitors this afternoon and ask the question. I presume the right of access needs to be on both sets of deeds and not just the house we're buying - hopefully the neighbours will be co-operative so things go smoothly...!

Yep, on both sets of deeds. Don't fret about the neighbours - they are the vendor's problem. If your vendor is hopeful of persuading you to accept things as they are, then he may suggest talking to the neighbours - don't miss the opportunity to get to know them - sound them out on whether they would go with changing the deeds, but beyond that, throw it onto the vendor.

monkeysrevenge

I doubt that it would go ahead to be honest if it wasn't on the deeds - I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere in the mortgage offer that right of access had to be confirmed for the offer to be valid. Though, they might just have meant access to the property in general, which would mean the front door is acceptable.

marshall666

I have recently been in a very similar situation.
Despite assurances from the seller, part of the "shared" drive that we had to cross to reach our garage was actually the neighbours land.
Our solicitors got on to the sellers to sort out an easement at their expense, no arguments.
edit: I should add that the solicitors did this on their own without even asking what we wanted to do, I take this to mean that you should not even think about letting it slide.

Mojisola

monkeysrevenge wrote: »

Thanks, might call the solicitors this afternoon and ask the question. I presume the right of access needs to be on both sets of deeds and not just the house we're buying - hopefully the neighbours will be co-operative so things go smoothly...!

Even if everything in the paperwork is clear, if the current neighbour or a future one wants to stop you using the right of way, it's very easy for them to cause you a lot of problems.

Unless the house was spot-on in all other regards and even if not being able to use the ROW it would still be alright, I'd walk away.

monkeysrevenge

We wouldn't buy the house without the garage, unless they knocked £15-20k off the sale price (currently £100k)