Misrepresentation of Driveway

Small_Yeti

Hi Everyone,

As always, given all the expertise and general loveliness of the forum, I'm interested in what everyone on here thinks about this situation.

We are quite near to completion on a house, in an area that we love, it needs a bit of work doing to it but we think it will make a lovely home.

When we viewed the property we were told (and it is on the particulars) that the house comes with two parking spaces at the front of the building. The house is on a row of houses that is, although continuous, sort of split into two lots, the right side and the left side. We've viewed a couple of these houses and we used to know people that lived in some of them so we know them well. The left side houses (the ones we know best) clearly have group parking (a line of spaces in front of the houses not marked). Each house is allowed one car parking spot on the group area but it is first come, first served. We know some houses have more than one car parking there and it can be a bit of a bun fight for parking at times. You may or may not get parked in front of your house or indeed at all.

The house we are buying, on the right side of the street is in a line of fewer houses. Every house has a tarmaced area in front of it. The tarmac extends over the surface in front of five houses and there does appear to be some demarkation of area at the front of the houses but not where the cars park, where it is plain tarmac.

When we viewed the house (and when we were discussing our offer with the Estate Agent) we were told by the vendors that the drive in front of the property belonged to that property. That it was written in the deeds that it was not a general parking area (like further down the street) and that two cars were allowed to be parked on the driveway. This did contribute to why we chose to go with that house over others on the street that needed less doing to them.

Our Solicitor has now had various paperwork back and it appears that this is not the case. It is written that we are allowed to park two cars on an area marked on a map. The area covers our house and another seven houses (going down well into left hand side of the street where parking is a bit of a free for all). So basically we will not own a drive as described and although we can park two cars it will be the case of whether we can get a spot instead of having a definite area allocated that other people are not allowed to park on. It also means that other cars can park on "our" drive. Something that we were told would not happen. We only have one car so I can easily see that people on the street may get used to expecting there to be a free space in front of our house which will mean that whenever anyone visits they will struggle to park as someone will have parked there.

I'm pretty annoyed about this. The seller definitely misrepresented the facts to us. They were very, very, clear that this area was their drive and not a general parking area. They used it as a significant selling point to the house, as did the Estate Agent. At this point I don't think we would pull out of the house sale but we are not happy at all. I suppose I am just curious as to how other people would react were they in this situation. Our Solicitors are checking that the map is correct and asking why the vendors are under the impression this area is their drive instead of shared use but it does appear that it is shared use.

Thanks for any opinions/advice/thoughts. Bit miffed right now so some perspective would be good!

Grenage

My last place was like that, there were parking bays behind every house, and while you might of thought they were private drives, the council owned the lot. Nobody ever parked in 'my' spot, in the four years I was there - but I knew that it wasn't 'mine' when I offered on the house.

If I had been told at the start that it was part of the house's land, and that it later turned out not to be - I'd probably be pretty irritated. If I thought it was a genuine mistake (some people don't actually realise) - I might continue if the price was still fair.

If I thought it was a deliberate lie, I would immediately pull out unless I was getting a cracking deal.

pinkteapot

This is what the conveyancing process is for - finding out stuff like this.

If it turns out that the solicitors/documentation is correct, I personally would pull out. That's me though - I've had my own drive for a few years now and would never go back to any sort of shared parking unless I genuinely had no choice.

If you get a house with a proper drive, how much will you have to compromise on location/house size?

It sounds like parking is going to bother you. Do you want to be looking out the window when visitors are due to see if there's space for them?

It comes down to how important parking is to you and how much you'd have to compromise to have a proper drive.

mrginge

Personally I would rather cut off an ear than have to deal with shared parking.

Doozergirl

If they were adamant, then perhaps they didn't check their paperwork properly when they bought?

There's no point in lying about things that will show on the paperwork.

Kitten868

Now knowing what you know is the price still good? Are these other houses that are done up more expensive than the one you're buying? That's what I think you need to weigh up now that they're all the same on parking.

lush_walrus

While it's annoying it could be that is what the sellers think and the estate agents role is not to find out whether the vendor is correct or not. As others have said that is the reason conveyance solicitors exist to find out the legalities of everything, they have done that and provided you with their findings. It's now your choice whether you are happy with them or not - I wouldn't be as I can not bare fighting out parking but it might not be an issue for you and maybe everyone does avoid parking there.

Ozzuk

I'd want to know if the property was valued as having private off road parking, or shared parking.

I say that but in reality I wouldn't touch it - say you have an issue with a neighbor for whatever reason they could start parking outside your house just to annoy you. If parking is a priority I'd probably walk away.

silvercar

If you do decide to go ahead and buy I would get into the habit of keeping the driveway area to your house clear and parking further away. It goes to establish that the area in front of your drive is yours too.

AnotherJoe

silvercar wrote: »

If you do decide to go ahead and buy I would get into the habit of keeping the driveway area to your house clear and parking further away. It goes to establish that the area in front of your drive is yours too.

Eh? Id say it leaves an empty space that someone else can park in !

AnotherJoe

p.s. my daughter owned a house with communal parking. As per a post above, yep cutting off ear definitely preferable, I'd just walk away, (since you may have to walk to and from the house anyway)

Too much hassle , too much scope for resentment, lets say your next door neighbour always get home before you and is always parked in "your" space. Or soemone has a scruffy car they hardly use and they leave it parked there for weeks at a time (this happened in the communal parking area at my daughters, there was one car there that was close to being dumped there).

Find somewhere else, it wont be a "lovely home" if these sort of irritants are always there and of course at some time you'll sell it and buyers will have the same doubts you will.