Offer Accepted in April, Still arguing with neighbors...

Rebecca_1988

A friend has asked if the house was advertised with parking...

The house is advertised with parking by the estate agent? No mention of lack of access to parking etc. Owner said when viewing he had right of way to parking, and all was 'kosher'

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42503047.html


Do we have any come back on this? To estate agent? If all falls through for our solicitors fees or anything?

Thanks in advance!

DRP

Rebecca_1988 wrote: »

A friend has asked if the house was advertised with parking...

The house is advertised with parking by the estate agent? No mention of lack of access to parking etc. Owner said when viewing he had right of way to parking, and all was 'kosher'

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42503047.html


Do we have any come back on this? To estate agent? If all falls through for our solicitors fees or anything?

Thanks in advance!

No - There's a disclaimer at the bottom of the page and no doubt the EA's literature has one too...

Personally i don't see the access as an issue. You have access to the land, just not access to the land by car (in the unlikely event that the council prevent it).

Mattygroves2

Has anyone found out who actually owns the access road that you want to use ? If you know who owns it then you could try asking them to give you formal access rights then there are no problems at all.

You also need to know what the exact arrangements are for maintaining the access road. Otherwise you may find yourself with a large unexpected bill to pay when someone decides major work needs to be done.

fairy_lights

I also don't quite understand the problem...can't you buy the house, accepting the fact that you don't have rear access, enjoy the lovely big garden and park your car somewhere else?
I don't see what the grumpy neighbour wanting the land back has to do with it, or how that can prevent the sale


It's a beautiful house so I hope you can find a way round this.

I_have_spoken

Is the solicitor playing a straight hand here? It almost sounds like he has an instruction from the awkward neighbour!

Either that or he's a numpty with no experience in conveyancing and is all over the place on the legalities.

Doozergirl

There are two options as I see it.

The first is to speak to your potential new neighbours. You are pretty impartial here. They don't get on with the current owner, perhaps you can persuade them that life will be better without him and perhaps you can co-operate with each other. They might be entirely reasonable with you! If they aren't, then perhaps there's reason to re-think anyway.

The other is to make a complaint to the solictor's firm. It is not okay to not speak to you and it is not okay to leave you hanging. There is access to the land via the road at the front and the front door. The landbeing sold is rightfully that of the current vendor. There is a right of way issue behind, but it does not prevent access to the property as a whole. I don't think it's a major issue. You need a solicitor who can be pragmatic and apply common sense - so many cause problems when thy should be coming up with solutions! If it were my solicitor, I think they'd be finding a way to exchange but with the priviso that I understood that there was a chance of losing that vehicle access. If the property details don't include parking then why are the mortgage company bothered? No one has misled anyone. There is parking at the front so I don't think value would be affected by unofficial off street parking at the rear - the house isn't expensive so I think value would only be affected if you had to walk for ages to get to the house.

Do those other 30+ neighbours have proper right of way across the back? Has your vendor only owned the property for three years? Is that why the stat dec is only for three years and the neighbour was using it for longer or have they only recently started accessing the land? As long as you understand there is a small risk that the land owner will get upset (is it the council?) and gate the end of the access, then I don't see the major issue.

House was no advertised with parking, kick the solicitor, tell them clearly it's not advertised with parking, please exchange. Mortgage compnay has no business asking for proof of rear access to the garden.

franklee

Doozergirl wrote: »

House was no advertised with parking, kick the solicitor, tell them clearly it's not advertised with parking, please exchange. Mortgage compnay has no business asking for proof of rear access to the garden.

The rightmove ad does make the parking a selling feature:

"Car Parking for Two/Three Vehicles"

And

"There is a further stone chipping pathway to a parking area which can accommodate for three vehicles. The gates which are both wide and tall incorporated a pedestrian access and vehicle access; due to the design this space would accept a caravan, motor home or van".

Plus photos of the parking.

Rebecca_1988

Thanks for your replies.

There is parking and it is advertised, my solicitor has advised to read my valuation and it does say not very clearly
"Land held under different title at the back, conveyancer to check all details"

It doesnt really mention about the off road access, although we are hoping it will not massively affect the value.

Also - my solicitor was talking to other sides solicitor to see if current declaration (worthless as only 3 years) and indemnity insurance will pull us through on this one, my solicitor is saying no, other side is saying yes.

Can it be classed as harassment if we go round to neighbor to ask to talk about why they wont sign anything?
We are thinking of going round tonight to see!

As we use the full length of the access path and could technically be blocked off by the neighbor - I dont think the other people that use the access path matter too much when it comes to legality etc.
Obviously the neighbor cannot block us in as you cannot leave your car parked on a playing field or build a fence or anything - so not sure what my solicitor is fighting for?

All very confused. We are dealing with the director of the solicitors and solicitors company name is his surname! So complaining is obviously not going to get us very far!!