house buying negotiations

Loujane

Hi,
We had an offer accepted on a house a few months ago and have had the survey done and the house has basically been valued at what we offered. Our solicitor has just found an existing deed of grant that Western Power have for right of access to the land (there is an over head high power line crossing the property at the rear of the garden. We were unaware of this at the time we made our offer and it wasn't disclosed on property info form. the deed of grant was sold by the previous owner (now deceased) 2 years ago for the sum of £5,500.

Is it fair enough to renegotiate the purchase price considering this new information? Does anyone have any experience of this situation at all?

MrsFingersCrossed

I don't think it is, to be honest. I think this sort of thing is pretty standard. For example the house we're buying has a public sewer within the garden and we will have to grant access to Thames Water if they need to attend to a problem.


I'm no expert but I know that searches often show up covenants (like don't work from home unless a named 'profession', keep the front garden lawn etc and other unexpected things like must grant access to utility companies etc), so this sounds reasonably normal to me.

ambioni

Realistically- how much of an impact will this have on you when you live there? You knew the powerline exsited when you made the offer, so presumably you were OK with that? It is possible that access may be occasionally required to your garden for repair/service but it's not going to be a daily thing. You might try to renegotiate but the seller would probably not reduce by much (if at all)

dragonsoup

We have a pole on our land belonging to Western Power- they pay us an annual rent for the privilege.

An unexpected advantage is that when our trees start to get too close to the power line they write to us and ask if they can cut them back. As we don't want them any bigger either this does save us quite a lot of money!

Loujane

thanks for responses, in reality I think its unlikely that it will have very much impact on us but I guess the potential is always there which is why Western Power paid out £5.5k to the vendor for rights, I know this has been pretty standard. We are getting solicitors to check exactly what WP would be able to do with the land but as far as i can see it would only be access for upgrading/maintaining the single power line and restrictions for what we can grow/build within a certain distance of the line for obvious reasons. Of course we knew the power line was there and I guess with it was always the possibility that it could lead to inconvenience in the future.
My partner thinks that the £5.5K is due to us as the rights have just been sold and weren't revealed and the feeling is that it may put off potential buyers in the future though of course the mere presence of the power line will put off some anyway!

Rosetinted

I personally wouldn't fuss over such a tiny thing and don't agree with your partner that you're owed £5500. The deal was done before you knew the place existed and your valuation came back at the price you're paying - that clearly would've factored in any lost value from having a power line close by.

Ignoring the money, you need to ask yourself the following: if Western Power occasionally needs to access the land to service the power line, is it a big deal to you? If it is, I'd firstly check out with the company how much access they actually need and how regularly. If you aren't happy with the response, you could try talking to the seller and saying you weren't aware of the access and it's putting you off a bit.

If I were selling and my buyer started asking for £5500 off for such a minor thing, I'd think they were being deliberately difficult.

G_M

The power line is hardly camouflaged is it? You must have been aware of its presence when you made your offer.... and by a process of simplistic logic, must have considered the unlikely possibility of repairs being needed to it?

This is a case of seeking any excuse to renegotiate after agreeing a price......

Loujane

Thanks for your comment. Certainly not looking for any excuse just wanted peoples views on what is the norm for this type of situation. I feel happy with the agreed price, my partner doesn't since finding out about the deed so thought some other opinions might be useful.

It is also interesting to see whether anyone would be further put off by an existing deed of grant, it looks like not which is useful for me to know.

Rosetinted

I'd guess that people who aren't put off by a power line wouldn't be deterred by its occasional maintenance and the company doing this having access rights, unless they're stomping around your garden all the time.

Mallotum_X

Is there a time limit on the rights?

Loujane

not as far as I am aware, our solicitor is currently looking into it so we have all the facts. But as I understand it it is forever. Therefore it means WP could turn up at any point in the future and carry out weeks of works and we would have absolutely no recourse for compensation because they have already paid up for the rights. Of course they may never turn up at all....
We obviously knew about the power line but we didn't know about not being able to make any claims for inconvenience at any point in the future and while many people think that because the power line is obvious its not an issue, my partner feels that the deed of grant is.