Mis-sold house re parking

Globesquirrel

Hi there

We bought our house around 1.5 years ago now on the basis that it had a driveway with space for 2 cars. We have had a letter from the council to say that we are illegally parking our cars on the drive as we are crossing the pavement and we have to apply for the drop kerb, only we can't because after we measured the drive, its too short by a couple of inches and will be refused by the council.

The EA brochure states it has "parking" and having re-read our survey, this states "off street parking for 2 cars "

This was our first house purchase so we were relying on the solicitors to pick this up and we did have an additional mid range building survey done.

Does anyone know if we would have a claim here? We're at a loss as to who to speak to regarding this as it seems wrong to be selling a house with an unusable driveway!

Many thanks

diggingdude

Did you notice there not being a dropped kerb?

mrginge

Buy shorter cars

Ms_Chocaholic

Do you have a dropped kerb currently and wish to widen it?


If you already have a dropped kerb could you use that part of the dropped kerb to drive the first car onto the drive and then put it at an angle so the 2nd car can also drive onto the drive using the dropped kerb also. It's driving over the normal kerb that the Council objects to.

Davesnave

You will find the EAs details have caveats regarding accuracy, saying something to the effect that they are not to be relied upon.

As for the solicitor, they probably never visited the property, so what would they 'pick up here?' Noticing the lack of a dropped kerb was partially your job, and maybe also that of the surveyor.

So, here the only person you might have some come-back with is the surveyor, who carried-out what sounds like a Homebuyers' Survey. I'm not familiar with what this level of survey ought to include, but if it said "Parking for 2 cars" and the council refuse to allow you a dropped kerb, you may have a case.

Tiglet2

Sorry, you can't claim for this - if the non-dropped kerb was there on your viewing of the property, then it would have been up to you to ask the vendor why there wasn't a dropped kerb to allow vehicles to cross the footpath to park on the front or to have queried it with your legal advisor (solicitor) so that enquiries could have been made:

1. EAs particulars are to be taken with a pinch of salt. They are not legal experts and are just the sales people trying to sell a property. In the small print, it will say something that basically says they are not responsible for any inaccurate details in the sales particulars. You don't have a contract with the EA, the seller does.

2. Your surveyor also is not a legal expert and will be surveying the house not the dropped kerb or lack of.

3. Your solicitor won't even know whether or not the property has a dropped kerb, and therefore whether the drive is a drive, unless you point it out to them so they can raise enquiries about it. The solicitor doesn't view the property and is relying on you to query things that you're not sure about.

4. The Council are advising you that if you want vehicles to cross a footpath to park on your front, you are required to have a dropped kerb put in. You will have to apply to the council to get permission to have a dropped kerb and have the work done by one of their "approved contractors".

davidmcn

Globesquirrel wrote: »

We're at a loss as to who to speak to regarding this

From a pragmatic point of view, how about not speaking to anyone, and waiting to see whether the council have enough motivation and resources to take things any further?

System

Any survey I've seen always has a statement saying the survey assumes all local authority permissions that would have been required have been.

eddddy

Globesquirrel wrote: »

We have had a letter from the council to say that we are illegally parking our cars on the drive as we are crossing the pavement and we have to apply for the drop kerb...

Have you any idea how this came about?

Councils don't typically have the resources to have people walking /driving around speculatively looking for these kind of infringements.

Have you had a row with a neighbour, who might have reported you out of spite? Or have you nearly run somebody over as you crossed the pavement?

Davesnave

Tiglet2 wrote: »

2. Your surveyor also is not a legal expert and will be surveying the house not the dropped kerb or lack of.

Ah, there are two parking spaces, just not regulation sized spaces, and with no legal way of reaching them.


Thanks for clarifying.

theoretica

How old is the house and do you know how long the drive has been there?