Help Needed to Identify Garage Owner

Gardenholiday

Dear All,

My partner and I are in the process of purchasing our first property together in South London, but we have hit a problem which is becoming difficult to overcome.

When we first went to view the house, we were unaware that included as part of the title was a garage. This garage is located about 100m down the street and is part of a block of four garages.
We first became aware of the garage when the Title Plan and Title Register came through.

However, the vendor is adamant that the garage is not part of the property and he did not know it was included in his purchase when he bought the property in 2009.
Someone is using the garage, but we do not know who. We have tried asking around the houses in the local vicinity and left a note on the door, but have not heard back. I have also spoken to the land registry, but they only have the vendor as the registered owner. The vendor believes that there was some clerical error and he did not purchase the garage.

We need to get hold of whoever is using the garage so we can clean up who actually owns the garage and move ahead with our house purchase. I have noticed, through a gap on the side of the garage door, that there is an electricity supply to the garage and have contacted the UK Power Network to see if they can shed any light on this.

Can anyone offer any suggestions that we can try to locate the user of the garage? Has anyone experienced a similar issue and what did you do to resolve it?
Any help would be much appreciated,
Thanks,
Jonny


PS. Before this was brought to our attention we were planning to move in late December/early January and gave in our notice for our rented accommodation. Because of this delay, our move out date has come and we are now staying with my mother-in-law, so this is getting urgent!!

browneyedbazzi

How old is the house?

The original planning permission might show the garages and which property they are allocated to so it might be worth contacting the local council - this will obviously be easier to track down for newer houses than for places that are 100 years old.

Could also be worth simply asking around the neighbours to see if they have a garage and which one they use etc.

lynnemcf

What about getting in touch with the previous owner, maybe they didnt sell the garage to the current owner and are still using it!

theartfullodger

When you have bought the place park (a very old) car in front of garage with a note: You will find out who is using it within a couple of days...

Suspect the arguments about who has rights to garage will continue for years.. "but I've been using for 15 years with no rent asked for..." etc etc

The lawyers should make a few bob out of the situation...

G_M

Don't see why you need delay your purchase. You did not expect to get the garage so it is a bonus.

You can sort out ownership later. Either you will end up with the bonus of a garage, or it will be removed from the Title and you'll end up with the house you expected.

loubel

If your seller is certain he wasn't meant to have purchased the garage then he needs to speak to his previous conveyancing solicitors to find out why he is the legal owner of the garage. They should still have the conveyancing file with copies of the contract, transfer deed and correspondence which should hopefully shed some light on what has happened. It is unlikely to be resolved quickly though.

Gardenholiday

The house was built circa 2000 - I have contacted the council this afternoon and I am hoping they will send me the planning permission for this.

lynnemcf - how could I get in contact with the previous owners? I believe that the current owners have got in contact with the solicitors they used when buying the property so hopefully this can shed some light on the situation.

I would be happy to proceed with the purchase as is and sort the garage ownership out after, but our solicitor is saying that we cannot proceed until this is sorted

G_M

Gardenholiday wrote: »

I would be happy to proceed with the purchase as is and sort the garage ownership out after, but our solicitor is saying that we cannot proceed until this is sorted

Depends why he is saying this.

If it is in his capacity as solicitor acting for your mortgage lender (assuming you are getting amortgage), then nothing you can do.

If it is in his capacity as your solicitor, and this is his advice to you, you can over rule him and instruct him to proceed.

Ask him.

Mojisola

G_M wrote: »

If it is in his capacity as solicitor acting for your mortgage lender (assuming you are getting amortgage), then nothing you can do.

Agree - a garage in London is worth a lot. If the garage doesn't come with the property, the value of the property will be lower and the mortgage lender might want to reconsider.

mr_fishbulb

Mojisola wrote: »

Agree - a garage in London is worth a lot. If the garage doesn't come with the property, the value of the property will be lower and the mortgage lender might want to reconsider.

Depends how the lender valued it I guess. The garage seems to have come up as part of the solicitor searches. The lender wouldn't have performed these.

The OP offered on the property not knowing there was potentially a garage with it, and the vendor marketed the property without a garage. If the garage isn't included then the value should stay the same (as that's what was expected when the offer was made and accepted). If the garage is included then the value of the property should go up (in which case the vendor may want to pull out and re-market it with a garage!).

G_M

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

.....If the garage is included then the value of the property should go up (in which case the vendor may want to pull out and re-market it with a garage!).

All the more reason to ignore the issue for now, Exchange, Complete, and sort it out later!