Misrepresentation AND failed local searches

Ady1

Hi, I’m looking for help, any help and advice.
I have receantly purchased and moved into a 16th century cottage. However... despite being informed by both the vendor, and our solicitor through the searches carried out on our behalf that the road accessing our private drive way and double garage was adopted and maintained by the local authorities. This is clearly stated and visible documentation.

After arriving at our property the neighbours greeted us with ‘this is a private road’
‘You can’t drive on here’
Obviously this couldn’t be the case... I have documentation, it’s council. No no noooo

I now have a house that’s land locked... with no access granted. With its own driveway, a double garage with no access to it.
Despite the previous owner declaring 3 times on legal documents and drawing a diagram on request of my solicitors of access and parking provided with the property. The vendor also signed documentation declaring not knowing of any disputes with access or parking issues.

Having spoken to the neighbours there has been several letters sent to the previous vendor relating to breech of access having used the road to park on the drive and access the garage.

Having referred the matter to our solicitor who contact the local authorities and search result provider who have declared a mistake has occurred and the road is intact private.

So my questions.....

How much is this going to cost approximately to rectify?
Who do I claim against and how much and what am I likely to achieve and how long is this process going to take?

Unfortunately spellings and my knowledge of the conveyance is poor.

anselld

The fact that it is adopted or private does not necessarily affect your right to use it.

What is stated in the deeds about who owns the piece of land and the rights you have to access the garage and/or park? These things should have been checked by your solicitor on the deeds regardless of the local search results.

What is more worrying is that you clearly have PITA neighbours! The cost to rectify will be largely driven by them unless you solicitor can confirm rights of way.

G_M

This is clearly stated and visible documentation.

What documentation?
What do your deeds say? Please quote.

Ady1

Thankyou for your response

Yes they should, according to my solicitors they acted on the information of the searches, which stated the access road was adopted. It has now been corrected stating that it is private and owned by my 2 neighbours.
The deeds do not contain any information relating to access.
I am told both vendor and search provider are liable.

G_M

Is here any other access eg on foot, or is the driveway the only possible access?

Easement by neccesity:

Necessity

The courts are very strict on allowing an easement to be acquired by necessity. It can only be applied to a right of way and only if the land claiming the benefit is completely landlocked. It will not apply where the lack of a right of way is merely inconvenient, for example if there is access to the property from a public highway but only via a steep, rocky embankment and it is also possible to access the property via neighbouring land but no right of way exists over that land then it is unlikely a claim to a right be necessity would succeed.

see also
http://www.landregistry-titledeeds.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/information/private-rights-of-way.asp

Smodlet

Sounds to me as if your solicitor should be strung up by the you-know-whats... I mean, more than most/all solcitors on principle.

There is a way out of this; I don't know what it is but keep the faith, you will get there. Access is an obvious requirement; it's a no-brainer... And good luck with your neighbours; hope your house is worth the pain but you can overcome. Perhaps check out moneyistooshorttomention's posts.

Good luck and HTH a tiny bit.

G_M

I have receantly purchased and moved into a 16th century cottage.

Clearly someone (or various someones!) have been accessing the prperty for the last 500 years - unless you bought a long derelict property!

So an easement by prior use is pretty well bound to exists - unless (as asked above) there is another access route that has been historically used.

Establishing an easement whether by Prior Use, or Necessity, will involve court action (unless the neighbours relent and reach an agreement with you).

The costs of the legal action should be covered by whoever gave you the erroneous information


* the vendor and/or
* your solicitor and/or
* the local authority and/or
* the 'search result provider'

lika_86

Smodlet wrote: »

Sounds to me as if your solicitor should be strung up by the you-know-whats... I mean, more than most/all solcitors on principle.

Why? By the sounds of it the searches and the information from the vendor said it was adopted. How would or should a solicitor know any different? Even the OP didn't know from having been to see the property. If liability is anywhere I'd suggest it's with the Local Authority.

ETA: Reread the OP and note that the vendor has had letters about breach so should have declared this. So, an issue there too. Still nothing to do with the OP's solicitor.

Smodlet

lika_86 wrote: »

Why? By the sounds of it the searches and the information from the vendor said it was adopted. How would or should a solicitor know any different? Even the OP didn't know from having been to see the property. If liability is anywhere I'd suggest it's with the Local Authority.

ETA: Reread the OP and note that the vendor has had letters about breach so should have declared this. So, an issue there too. Still nothing to do with the OP's solicitor.

Imo, it is a solicitor's job to find this stuff out; what are they being paid for? A load of form-filling once they have been provided with every last bit of information on a plate? Why bother with them, then? You're not a solicitor/conveyancer by any chance, are you?

Rambosmum

Are you allowed to access the property via that road on foot, or by another way (e.g the drive and garage are at the back where you would then use the back door as your regular access but there is actually a front door but with less convenient access)

This will determine what can be done.

If the house is truly landlocked (no access by foot) then it is relatively easily rectified and once rectified (via the courts) sue the relevant people for the cost.

lika_86

Smodlet wrote: »

Imo, it is a solicitor's job to find this stuff out; what are they being paid for? A load of form-filling once they have been provided with every last bit of information on a plate? Why bother with them, then? You're not a solicitor/conveyancer by any chance, are you?

What do you expect the solicitor to do? In every case and for every bit of information provided should the solicitor go round to the property physically and knock on doors and ask the neighbours whether the information provided by the local authority and vendor is correct?! Don't be ridiculous.

The OP said that
"Despite the previous owner declaring 3 times on legal documents and drawing a diagram on request of my solicitors of access and parking provided with the property. The vendor also signed documentation declaring not knowing of any disputes with access or parking issues."

The solicitor has asked the question and requested appropriate searches which also said the road was not private, they are not liable here. Nor should they be expected to be mind-reading wizards.