Buying a New Build with Area of Unregistered Land

Jackc1494

I am currently in the process of buying a new build semi detached house on a Lovell Homes site in the Greater Manchester area.


A couple of weeks ago my Solicitor sent over the Land Registry plans for the plot we are buying and brought to my attention a small triangular section of unregistered land within the front garden of the house. Before this we had no idea about it. Since then we received the contracts to sign etc and a clause was included in the contract that the area of unregistered land would be registered in our names following completion and Lovell Homes would be liable to cover any costs relating to this.


We were then due to exchange contracts last Friday (28/09) before we received an email late on Friday from our Solicitor saying that she was unable to obtain indemnity insurance in time to exchange that day. Since then our Solicitor hasn't been able to find an indemnity insurer that will accept the required policy.


My first question is why can't my Solicitor find an indemnity insurer for the unregistered land? Surely this isn't the first time this situation has occurred so I'm wondering if she's looking properly? And 2) why aren't Lovell Homes sorting the mess out? Surely we should have been made aware of this a long time ago and not at exchange!!


What will happen if we can't find the required indemnity insurance? And how long does it usually take to transfer unregistered land? Any help would be appreciated.



I'm worried that my Solicitor will refer this back to our mortgage lender and then they pull out which is obviously the worse case scenario!!



Does anybody have any advice on what we need to do to sort this out? Any advice on the number of scenarios how this could pan out would be appreciated!! Thanks.


Jack.

SmashedAvacado

Your solicitor should be giving this advice.

What you are saying is not 100% clear but it appears that they cannot ascertain who owns the unregistered land - and that is why insurance is being suggested - as opposed to what it was being said earlier, which was that first registration would take place on transfer to you (which wouldn't require insurance). I think you need to clarify is this is the position - because if they do not know who owns the property, then they cannot get it transferred to you. As such, the insurance is to cover any claim by someone coming forward and proving they own the parcel of land.

They ought to be able to find an insurer for this if the developer had looked into who owns this land and drawn a blank - (as insurance is typically available where the owner cannot be found / identified). There may be more to it than this, so you need to ask the developer via your lawyer to explain the issue more fully - including the issue that the insurers have.

davidmcn

I would also expect the developer to have sorted this out when they acquired the site. How big is the "small triangle"? Is it important for anything e.g. access?

Jackc1494

Thank you for your reply.


I have been told by my Solicitor that the small area of land is unregistered and therefore nobody owns it. If this is the case I am not sure why they cannot find an insurer for it?

Every time I mention it to Lovell Homes they just tell me that it's nothing to worry about as the area of land doesn't affect driveway access etc but something needs to be done about it if we can't find the required insurance. It is delaying the whole process and we are currently unable to exchange contracts.

Are you able to recommend any indemnity insurers so I can take a look at some quotes myself and advise what will happen if we can't find an insurer for the land?

Thanks again.

Davesnave

Jackc1494 wrote: »

Thank you for your reply.


I have been told by my Solicitor that the small area of land is unregistered and therefore nobody owns it.

Under normal circumstances, you wouldn't be told that, because it's not true.

The fact that the land is unregistered just means it hasn't changed ownership since registration became compulsory.

It doesn't mean that no one owns it, though it is possible the owner doesn't know or care about it......yet!

davidmcn

The relevant insurers won't deal directly with you, only with your solicitor. Has your solicitor explained why they can't get cover?

When you say "within the grassed area" is it at the edge of the garden or will you own registered land surrounding it? i.e. is there an option of just excluding that area from your garden by shifting the fence etc? Seems a relatively big bit to lose though.

Jackc1494

davidmcn wrote: »

I would also expect the developer to have sorted this out when they acquired the site. How big is the "small triangle"? Is it important for anything e.g. access?

We would have too but it doesn't appear so!! The area of land is triangular in shape and is probably around 4m in width and 1.5m in height. It falls within the grassed area of the front garden so isn't important for access or anything like that.

PasturesNew

If it's unimportant to you, then you can just wing it....

The developer should've done this though; that's slack of them.

Think of the worst case scenario of you wing it ... what if it's sold to the Council by the "real owner" to be used as a bus-stop... or what if the "real owner" wants to park an old jalopy there that's left to fester.

Can you wing it?

Jackc1494

davidmcn wrote: »

The relevant insurers won't deal directly with you, only with your solicitor. Has your solicitor explained why they can't get cover?

When you say "within the grassed area" is it at the edge of the garden or will you own registered land surrounding it?

They haven't explained why they can't get cover and it is at the edge of the garden immediately adjacent to the public footway which is in front of the hosue/garden. We will own the registered land to the north/east/west of it but the land to the south is the public footway.

Jackc1494

PasturesNew wrote: »

If it's unimportant to you, then you can just wing it....

The developer should've done this though; that's slack of them.

Think of the worst case scenario of you wing it ... what if it's sold to the Council by the "real owner" to be used as a bus-stop... or what if the "real owner" wants to park an old jalopy there that's left to fester.

Can you wing it?

Personally I'd be fairly comfortable to "wing it" but I'm sure my mortgage lender won't see it that way?

martindow

Jackc1494 wrote: »

I have been told by my Solicitor that the small area of land is unregistered and therefore nobody owns it.

Someone owns it - are you sure this is what the solicitor said?

It seems as if the developer bought some pieces of land and there now appears to be a small area unaccounted for. Could it be minor errors in the boundaries of bits of land that have created this? It must be very small if it is within the garden of a new-build.

Are you using a solicitor recommended by the developer?