Odd easement boundary issue

sgun

Wondering if anyone has thoughts on this. It is of course being dealt with by my conveyancer but she is away and it would be useful for me to hear some independent opinions.

The house I am trying to buy has an easement across a large part of the garden. The vendors have told me that it is for drainage from the farm. Picture of area here easement in pink i.imgur.com/L1HxfgH.jpg

The house was built in 1970ish and the easement, according to the Charges Register was added in 1985. I assume this was when the garden was extended into the surrounding farmland (the farmer who lives at North Farm presently lived at the other house at this time before inheriting the farm).

I have been told by the vendors that the easement is for access to drainage and that the drains run around the property linking to the drains of the farmhouse before entering the public drain on the street. This image is from when the house was being built and shows drains from the farm and house. i.imgur.com/1z7eUrq.jpg I just can't see why there would be drains there as it doesn't go anywhere.

The wording of the easement is "subject to all paths public and private rights of way rights of water and easements of every description affecting the property and all quasi-easements or quasi-privileges now enjoyed on or over the property"

My concern is that the easement is not specific - it seems to imply that the beneficiary has all rights over the land including just walking over it if they wanted to. This isn't an issue now but in the future, if the land around was developed could that easement allow for a footpath through the garden?

So anyway, thoughts on the purchase please. I normally wouldn't touch a house with an easement such as this. The garden is very important to me and is really only just large enough anyway. I was intending on putting in raised beds, a polytunnel and turning it all over for crops.

I know easements are common, this one seems odd and my instinct says to pull out. The vendors would put in an indemnity policy I think but in reality if the drains need mending then quite a bit of the garden would need to be dug up.

Are their any questions you would be asking? Or should I cut my losses?

moneyistooshorttomention

Your links don't work - can you amend them so that they do.

molerat

http://i.imgur.com/L1HxfgH.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1z7eUrq.jpg

ProDave

My guess is the intention was to stop building on the bit of field that has now become part of your garden. By having rights over that strip of land they effectively stop you extending the house beyond the original boundary.

I could of course be wrong.

Of perhaps greater concern, was that strip of land ever oficially changed to "garden" or is it still in planning terms agricultural land?

sgun

It is registered as part of the garden. There is also a restrictive covenant that prohibits building or extending so it isn't that. The vendors are saying it is for the farmers drains. I just don't see why there would be drains there. More concerned with if in the future they wanted to turn it into a right of way path, whether they could or not. Just not sure if it is worth the worry.

AdrianC

davidmcn

sgun wrote: »

The wording of the easement is "subject to all paths public and private rights of way rights of water and easements of every description affecting the property and all quasi-easements or quasi-privileges now enjoyed on or over the property"

I think you're quoting the wrong thing - that's a reservation of easements, not an easement itself. Have you got something which actually refers to the pink area on the plan?

sgun

davidmcn wrote: »

I think you're quoting the wrong thing - that's a reservation of easements, not an easement itself. Have you got something which actually refers to the pink area on the plan?

No I don't think I have. That was on a document Official copy of register of title which shows "the entries on the register of title on 11th July 2018" Section A: Property register, describes the land edged in red being the whole property, then says "As to the land tinted pink on the title plan the mines and minerals together with ancillary powers of working are excepted with provision for compensation in the event of damage caused thereby"

It also says (in section C:charges register) "The land tinted pink is subject to the following rights reserved by a Conveyance of the land in this title and other land dated 1985 made between x (vendors) and y (purchasers)" and then the bit which seems to be the reservation of the easement.

So am I missing the key information of what the easement is there for? I have no land conveyancing documents from 1985, only the original conveyance from 1969 just before the house was built on the land.

davidmcn

sgun wrote: »

So am I missing the key information of what the easement is there for?

Yes. That wording just means that any pre-existing easements remain in place. It doesn't tell you what they are, and doesn't necessarily mean that there even are any. It's a fairly unhelpful but quite standard wording, often chucked into agricultural land sales when nobody can be bothered working out exactly where the pipes or rights of access actually are.

So (although you'll be guided by your solicitor on this) you should be asking whether there are actually rights actually exercised, and since the vendors have mentioned drains, see if you can check where any pipes actually run.

The only reason it's an L-shaped pink bit is (I expect) because the land came from the adjoining field, and those conditions were imposed by whoever owned the field at the time (and they would have said something identical for a sale of any other bit of the field). I don't think there's actually anything going around those sides of the house.

sgun

Thanks so much davidmcn, very helpful and puts my mind at rest a bit, I'll make sure my conveyancer asks all the right questions (as I am sure she would anyway!)

pinklady21

Might be field drainage? Depends on the lie of the land, which is something that might be obvious just from looking at it.
Worth asking anyway if there are any buried pipes or cables etc in that (or indeed any) part of the garden.