Garage Still Registered To Previous Owners

onetenzeroseven

Hello

We're purchasing a property that has a garage with a door into the garden, but is actually part of a row of ex-council garages out the back of the garden.

We were 'sold' the property with the garden belonging to the house, however our solicitor has flagged up a problem that this garage is actually still registered to the previous owners and therefore the current owners can't legally sell it to us.

The current owners have lived in the property and used this garage for the past 9 years with no problems and we believe the previous owners don't even know they still own it.

This is severely delaying our purchase, we've had to move out of our rented accommodation and in with parents and we're renting storage space for all our belongings.

Our solicitors has no advice except to wait for the previous owners to be found and see if they will transfer the ownership, however they have even suggested that they might not be able to find them.

No one is giving us any information, has anyone dealt with anything similar? Do you know what options there are if the previous owner can't be found? This garage is essential to our sale.

Dropping out at this point also wouldn't solve the issue, the garage will still need to be transferred otherwise whoever buys the property will just have an abandoned garage at the bottom of the garden that no one uses.

Any advice would be really appreciated!!

Thanks,

Sophie

Sammydog

We have a similar problem with our purchase but in our case it was the garden which had been left in the name of the previous owner!
It's hard to say how long it has delayed it but I would say about 4weeks so far.


Luckily the previous owners have now been found and they were unaware their name was still on the title deed and are quite happy to sign it over so now it will jump from them to us rather than having to go via the current owners. Just need to wait for them to get back from holiday now!


Not sure if that's much use to you since you're having trouble tracing the previous owners ... the only option our solicitor gave us was if ours couldn't be found, we could go ahead with the purchase then 'claim' the garden after 12(?) years ... not a risk they would recommend or one we wanted to take as without the garden we would have no way to access the house or garage.


Would it be worth doing a bit of digging around yourself? Maybe talk to some of the neighbours in case they kept in touch? Might be quicker than waiting for a solicitor with a dozen other cases on the go at the same time.


Good luck and I hope it works out!

onetenzeroseven

Aww thanks so much Sammydog. You know, in all the millions of people we've moaned to about it, no one has suggested asking the neighbours! You're a genius!

Wow, I can't believe the garden was still registered to the previous owner! I thought the garage was bad. I'm so pleased they've agreed to transfer it over. I hope everything runs smoothly for you from now on and you're in your house soon )

Thank you!

davidmcn

onetenzeroseven wrote: »

This garage is essential to our sale.

It's not clear from what you've said why it is - can't you just buy the house as it is and take on the challenge of sorting the garage title in your own time?

Dan-Dan

What does your mortgage lender say about it?

Land_Registry

Hi Sophie

Yes the best option would seem to be sorting the transfer of house and garden and then asking solicitors to track down the Garage owner. Or if the address for service ( entry B1 of the register) is out of date maybe try the Council?

Atomix

Also maybe use this to your advantage, as its a hassle to you (time/cost of sorting it all out), with no definitive outcome i.e. whether you will own the garage outright...

drop the price - accordingly... (chances are you will get full use of the garage anyway with a good chance of ownership).