Indemnity policy for right of way help

Dhind91840

Myself and my other half are buying our first home. It is a mid terrace with an arch next to it with vehicular access to the back. We have garages at the back but our solicitors found that we have no right of access to the path that leads up to the garages making them inaccessible to us. The sellers solicitors have expressed an indemnity policy so us and the seller are insured against legal costs and actions should the issue arise in the future - the access is actually joint owned by 3 properties and the other property with garages at the back has access rights. With all this into consideration does anyone know if an indemnity policy is viable? The access has been used by the current owners for over 30 years without issue. Does anyone have any thoughts thay may help us?

davidmcn

Don't see why not. What does your solicitor think?

Dhind91840

They said it's completely up to us and they cant really advise! Obviously not the best. I'm reading mixed reviews on them at the moment, my main concern is coming to sell and it all being invalid or something, apparently it's the cheap way out of actually dealing with issues

Nobbie1967

My first thought is that the indemnity only applies to legal costs and should you have an issue with access, while you will be funded to fight for access, you might still lose and your house would be devalued as a result.

I'm not sure if 30 years continuous use gives any rights, but I would ask your solicitor whether it might be worth getting an affidavit from the current owners about their continuous use of the access for 30 years in case any issues do arise in future.

Have you looked at the deeds for the properties than own the access to see if they mention who has access rights?

Dhind91840

Yes it bizarre. Three properties have access right on the original land registry documents from the 70s, 2 of which actually have no land back there and no reason to have the access right. These 3 houses are on the opposite side to the arch. We are the next house along over the arch then there is a terrace attached to us on the other side - the one on the other side of use has right of access as they also have garages at the top but we don't. It's so confusing considering we are the middle property who need the access but the only one that doesn't have it.

davidmcn

Dhind91840 wrote: »

They said it's completely up to us and they cant really advise!

That's really not an acceptable stance for them to take - the whole point of you paying them fees is so that they give you professional advice in return, not just shrug their shoulders and leave you asking strangers on the internet.

Nobbie1967 wrote: »

My first thought is that the indemnity only applies to legal costs and should you have an issue with access, while you will be funded to fight for access, you might still lose and your house would be devalued as a result.

Indemnity policies will generally provide cover all the way up to the loss of the whole value of the property. In practice though, the insurers would almost certainly be able to buy formal access rights for less than that.

Cakeguts

Does this house appear to be "good value for money?" Is it cheaper than other houses of the same size in the same area? If so then this access problem is more of a problem than the vendors are trying to make out. It is possible that the garages at the back used to belong to a different property and when they got sold the access wasn't sorted out.

Dhind91840

The garages are definitely our property, it's the part leading up to them. The current owner wasn't aware that they didn't have rights apparently. It does appear good value for money but it's so odd as the access rights for actually cuts across and up the garden of the person who owns the land we require access to. Very odd set up.

Davesnave

If your predecessors have used the route continuously for more than 20 years, they would now have a prescriptive right of access, just as our neighbours have a prescriptive right of drainage onto our land, as their septic tank has had its outflow there for > 20 years.

If someone became unhappy about the access being used, your difficulty would be proving >20 years of use, so an affadavit would be worthwhile IMO.

However, I agree that your solicitor should also give a lead on this, not just dump the offer of an indemnity policy on you, useful though that back-up might be in a confrontation.

Davesnave

Dhind91840 wrote: »

. Very odd set up.

Similar to the set up a user on here had a few months back, though I'm not sure a garage was involved.



https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5904219/shared-access-odd-question

TrickyDicky101

Davesnave wrote: »

If your predecessors have used the route continuously for more than 20 years, they would now have a prescriptive right of access, just as our neighbours have a prescriptive right of drainage onto our land, as their septic tank has had its outflow there for > 20 years.

If someone became unhappy about the access being used, your difficulty would be proving >20 years of use, so an affadavit would be worthwhile IMO.

However, I agree that your solicitor should also give a lead on this, not just dump the offer of an indemnity policy on you, useful though that back-up might be in a confrontation.

That's interesting - I didn't even know this was a thing!