Coping Stones Theft - ongoing problem

robgoingcrazy

I originally posted this in the insurance section, but as I am not going to claim on the insurance as the excess makes it not worth claiming at all, am going to try here now.

Basically, over new year the coping stones (Yorkshire stone apparently) were stolen from a wall which splits my house from a neighbouring property. As far as I can tell the deeds say this is a party wall, therefore by rights I should be able to split the cost of repair with the neighbour.

I have a quote for £250 to recap the wall (about a 4 meter stretch) with the cheapest capping stones possible, this seems fair to me but am not sure about such things I was told it's a day's work though I think my dad could have built a wall in that time in his heyday, never mind rounded the top off!

However, the house was repossessed some months ago and is currently empty, it is apparently owned by the building society at present, the Estate agent has said they will pass it on to the owner but will not give me the owner details so I can chase them myself. They did say a sale was going through, but the for sale sign is still up, I have sent several emails to follow up my phone calls with crime reference number, quote for repair, etc, in the hope the current owner will play ball, but this estate agent is currently blanking me (so I will be badgering them on the phone tomorrow again!).

What are my rights in this situation? Why can the Estate Agent not tell me who owns the house, surely I have a right to know as this is effecting my property?

One option is to wait to see if I can get the current or new owner to contribute to the repair. However failing this, I may have to suck up the entire cost, but I would at least want to get the go ahead for any work if the wall is a party wall, in case the current or new owner decide they do not like the work I've paid for and rip it all off. The house is apparently on offer to builders looking to sell on anyway, so there is a chance they would be happy to do the work maybe if they are looking to do up the property and make it saleable to a FTB etc?

The wall has seemed to be worse for wear on top in the recent heavy rain, so leaving it for a long time doesn't seem the best option. Today I've covered it in copious amounts of bubble wrap weighted down with bricks and planks in hopes of keeping the worst of the weather off it.

Am just wondering if anyone can see a solution I'm not seeing, or figure out a way of finding out who currently owns the house. Needless to say if I discover the building society is part of a company I have any contracts or products with, I will be writing to their head office and explaining why I am switching them all (but first I need to find out!).

For reference, here is a pic of wall wrapped in bubble wrap, lol - don't know what the neighbours think, I could set a trend!

jellie

Have you tried the Land Registry? I believe the cost of checking on line is £3.

robgoingcrazy

jellie wrote: »

Have you tried the Land Registry? I believe the cost of checking on line is £3.

Yeah this was suggested in my other thread, have just spent the £3 for info the estate agent could have told me if they weren't being ****.

At first I thought I was just going to get the name of the previous occupier, which I already knew, I have found the name of both an estate agent and a bank mentioned, I know the house was visited by bailiffs and locks changed, does the following info give any indication of which would therefore now own the property?

NOTE: The rentcharge referred to in the said Conveyance has been
extinguished.
2 (15.08.2008) REGISTERED CHARGE dated 12 August 2008.
3 (03.12.2008) Proprietor: NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY of Nationwide
House, Pipers Way, Swindon L SN38 1NW.
4 (15.03.2013) Equitable charge created by an interim charging order of
the Tameside County Court dated 7 March 2013 in favour of National
Westminster Bank PLC (Court Reference ********)

Have removed the court reference for the confidentiality of my previous neighbour... From that who does it looks like the owner will be now - Nationwide BS or Natwest Bank?! The registered owner seems to still be neighbour but he is long gone...

I_have_spoken

Just pop around to Wickes and get some concrete coping and a 25kg bag of ready-mix mortar and DIY.

robgoingcrazy

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Just pop around to Wickes and get some concrete coping and a 25kg bag of ready-mix mortar and DIY.

a) I don't drive/have a vehicle, I can't see myself carrying all that stuff on the bus

b) My diy skills are non existent. Putting me and cement in the same places is likely to result in a call to the fire brigade when I cement myself to the wall or something :rotfl:

c) If I did somehow manage to do this without destroying the wall or breaking my feet dropping concrete on them, it would be a less than professional effort and still leaves the problem of any potential new owner wanting to rip it all off and start again with something more presentable...

DaftyDuck

You know, if I were you, I'd not worry about replacing them at the moment. You aren't going to get any money out of Nationwide or Natwest but you may well find the new owner pleased as punch that you'd share the cost, particularly as it was the previous owner/tenant who swiped them.

I really don't think the wall is going to suffer too much more from rain, and it's been up a hundred years so far.

As to doing it yourself, consider it. It wouldn't be a difficult job (honest), but £250 doesn't seem a bad price to me. (Might be able to fix leaks too )

robgoingcrazy

DaftyDuck wrote: »

You know, if I were you, I'd not worry about replacing them at the moment. You aren't going to get any money out of Nationwide or Natwest but you may well find the new owner pleased as punch that you'd share the cost, particularly as it was the previous owner/tenant who swiped them.

I really don't think the wall is going to suffer too much more from rain, and it's been up a hundred years so far.

As to doing it yourself, consider it. It wouldn't be a difficult job (honest), but £250 doesn't seem a bad price to me. (Might be able to fix leaks too )

It just looked like some of the bricks at the top were loose (I pushed one slightly and it felt like it would just come out/fall off the top) so am hoping the bubble wrap will protect it for the time being.

I think the £250 sounds ok, but if that was £125 it would be better, or less will just have to wait then I think.

If you'd ever seen me going crazy with a simple flat pack assembly, you would see why it's not advisable to let me loose with cement and concrete :rotfl: I always over water stuffing mix so mixing mortar etc could easily go wrong :eek:

Just a question on the land registry thing then, now I have paid for access to the registry for that document, can I check it to see if the registered owner changes now I have paid for it, or will I have to pay for it again? Short of the Your Move actually cooperating like human beings, that seems the only way I will get to know who the new owner is, unless I wait for them to turn up and start doing work?!

robgoingcrazy

The bubblewrap kind of keeps blowing over, although the bricks are holding it down, have now got wheelie bins on my side propped against it, and a packing pallete the neighbour had on the other.

This should really be in the Tate Modern.

I've emailed Your Move 3 times, my plan was to start phoning but with work and now discovering another problem in the form of mouse droppings all over my kitchen worktops and having to sort out traps and deep clean the entire kitchen (finishing about now, yes twenty to one am, I'm not happy having to have clients visit me in a mouse infested, mysteriously leaking house that is being stolen brick by brick of late, but at least I can make it as clean as possible...)

Anyway, they are just not replying which I consider very rude and have mentioned this. Is there anything I can do to get them to cooperate, surely I have some rights somehow regarding the wall, at least a right to be kept up to date on the property?

Should I write to their head office, or is it not worth expending the energy? Might see if I can find the top brass contact details, that's had the desired effect with bigger companies than Your Move...

Living up to my username at the moment, just want a break from all these mini disasters that are fraying my mental health to bits at the moment :eek:

missprice

You don't need the bubble wrap, the wall will be just fine with getting wet.
Any loose bricks just push them off so they don't fall off.
Walls are waterproof, hence rain water rarely seeps through house walls.
As this is an external wall it doesn't matter if water does seep through it.

Please just forget the bubble wrap and wait til new neighbors move in to ask for help paying. And I don't mean the minute they move in, leave it a week, or so.

Hth

Oh and its better than owt in the Tate Modern right now

robgoingcrazy

Have found this:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2315200/Learn-new-house-rules-Estate-agents-reveal-property-problems-says-OFT.html

Say the purchase goes through and the estate agent has not informed the buyer of either the crime or the additional problems, it seems possible I could speak to the new owner whenever they turn up and they could have a claim against the estate agent?

Am thinking of getting the press involved to cover the quirky wall art, and get this estate agent's rubbish attitude exposed in the process.

If only I really had the time for such antics...

missprice

robgoingcrazy wrote: »

Have found this:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2315200/Learn-new-house-rules-Estate-agents-reveal-property-problems-says-OFT.html

Say the purchase goes through and the estate agent has not informed the buyer of either the crime or the additional problems, it seems possible I could speak to the new owner whenever they turn up and they could have a claim against the estate agent?

Am thinking of getting the press involved to cover the quirky wall art, and get this estate agent's rubbish attitude exposed in the process.

If only I really had the time for such antics...

Agree about the wall art get on to the media right away, may get enough money from that to fix the wall.

What additional problems?

And whoever buys it may well rent it out, so you would be no closer to getting the wall fixed. I agree its unsightly, but its not the worst ever looking wall.