Legal advice against my solicitor?

rebecca91

Hi all, I hope this is a good place to put this, i'm having a little issue with something.

I bought a house 3 weeks ago (First time buyer) and noticed that the back garden has shared right of way with next door. This was fine. It doesnt bother me.

I spoke with my solicitor and asked (All over email so its in writing)
He told me the following
-"The legal position is that 156 has a legal right of way over the path to gain access to their property, but no rights of shared use of the garden to 154."

I've just bought next doors documents online to view, turns out they not only have access to the garden (again fine) but the deeds show they also own the garden joint with me. Not what the solicitor said. Nott just right of way.


My question is, what can I do about this? I was sold the property with the understanding (I did check with the solicitor) about the back garden and it turns out its not 'just mine'. It is totally shared.


Many thanks in advance.

Le_Kirk

I would have thought your first port of call would be the solicitor and ask him/her to clarify it. Is it possible that you have old documents online? If you are not satisfied with the solicitor's answer you should use their complaints procedure until you receive a satisfactory outcome (if one can be achieved) but if not you can then complain to the Law Society ............. which is run by .... solicitors!

Apparently things have moved on since I last had an issue with solicitors and you can now contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority at this link.

rebecca91

Thank you very much!

springdreams

Why don't you send the documents you have showing it is a shared garden to the solicitor and ask him/her to explain why the deeds show a different position to what he/she has told you.

As someone mentioned, the deed you have bought online may be out of date.

iammumtoone

Before you do anything else, have you checked what your deeds/documents say about the garden?

It is possible that yours and the neighbours don't agree.

martinsurrey

iammumtoone wrote: »

Before you do anything else, have you checked what your deeds/documents say about the garden?

It is possible that yours and the neighbours don't agree.

This,

If your deeds show the garden as owned by your plot, your solicitor cant really be blamed, would you expect them to view every deed in the town in case someone elses showed something different?

what do YOUR deeds say?