Shared access disparity on two new houses

Maclone22

We are about to lose out on purchasing a property that we had our offer accepted on since the 1st July. The house is a new build, one of two houses built on a single plot of land with a shared drive area. Progress was slow at the beginning, but real problems started when we were told that the other property had exchanged and completed. It seems as though the other sale went through with no mention of obligations regarding the shared area of the drive or responsibilities of the shared fence along the back garden.

When our solicitor queried this, such obligations were added to our TR1 (stating that we would be jointly responsible for shared areas of the drive and the fence) but there is no sign that the other party's deeds were updated. Clearly we are pretty uneasy to proceed with this unmirrored burden but the seller's solicitor keeps saying there is no problem and that the buyers of the other property were happy with the documents. They have now given us to the end of the week to complete or they will put the house back on the market.

One option for us is to ask that our deeds mirror exactly the other property's, which will therefore make no mention of obligations on shared areas of the drive, and I guess the plan will have to be updated to simply split the drive in two. Is this common, to have a shared drive with no mention of joint responsibilities? Are we setting ourselves up for a problem when we come to sell?

Thanks,

M

silvercar

Your solicitor should advise, by I would have thought that the preference is for the other side's deeds should be modified. Failing that mirror deeds would put no obligation on anyone, but that still leaves you with a potential headache and future buyers may be unhappy.

Maclone22

Our solicitor is trying to get them to modify the other house's deeds, but there's no way this will happen by the end of the week. Our solicitor is furious that they've imposed a deadline when we are simply trying to get a matching set of deeds.

We are cash buyers who offered over the asking price to get this house, so I wish the seller luck finding someone else in the same position as us who is happy to accept deeds where all the burden is on them or where the deeds are simply silent on the shared areas...!

edwink

I personally would call their bluff on the time scale given. The chances are they won't get as much for the property as you have offered anyway if you have offered over the asking price. Although saying that house prices have been rising.


I actually pulled out of buying a property with a shared driveway many years ago because the seller and their solicitor would not clarify the shared driveway arrangements and percentage for each house of any shared costs. I am so pleased now that I did because it turned out that the other property owners that shared the driveway were parking on it all the time. I saw that for myself many, many times as I drove past over the years. When we were purchasing the property it appeared that the driveway was in favour of the other property so that's why we were trying to get written evidence that it was a shared driveway.


You need to be 100% certain with everything relating to the sale before you sign anything.