Buying house with no deeds for garden. Help!

blaise802001

So. Am in the process of buying a house. Mortgage agreed etc. solicitor has informed me that there are no deeds to the garden. He says land registry does not show ownership for any garden in the area where mine is. Common drying ground was mentioned. It appears that this used to be common for hanging washing out and then people started putting fences up etc years ago.

Sol has advised me that seller will have to do a statutory declaration and provide indemnity insurance and claim squatters rights to get a possessory title. Does anyone know how long this will take? I’m sure it also doesn’t help that the seller now lives in New Zealand and this is a vacant property.

Also it apparently also has to go back to mortgage lender to see if it affects their valuation. More stress lol.

babyblade41

If the lender thought the garden was inc then it will affect the value.

It would be adverse possession which will then grant possessory title if all is in order .

It is a long process which won't happen that quickly where all documents have to be in order along with stat dec

You can get the application expedited but the general process will be the same , it will probably need a site visit , then it will go to see if any objections are raised. These are time limited

It won't help with vendor abroad as they probably won't have any access to historic paperwork quickly

davidmcn

babyblade41 wrote: »

If the lender thought the garden was inc then it will affect the value.

Though indemnity insurance would prop up the value back to where it ought to be, as the insurers would ultimately pick up any loss of value if someone challenges the title.

blaise802001

Ok thanks guys. And I thought the mortgage app was going to be the most stressful part. Hopefully the vendors solicitor can shed some more light to help work out the course of events.

Tom99

blaise802001 wrote: »

So. Am in the process of buying a house. Mortgage agreed etc. solicitor has informed me that there are no deeds to the garden. He says land registry does not show ownership for any garden in the area where mine is. Common drying ground was mentioned. It appears that this used to be common for hanging washing out and then people started putting fences up etc years ago.
Sol has advised me that seller will have to do a statutory declaration and provide indemnity insurance and claim squatters rights to get a possessory title. Does anyone know how long this will take? I’m sure it also doesn’t help that the seller now lives in New Zealand and this is a vacant property.
Also it apparently also has to go back to mortgage lender to see if it affects their valuation. More stress lol.

If you sign up for a free account with Nimbus Maps you can view all of the title plan boundaries for the area, also check if this common area is registered.
https://app.nimbusmaps.co.uk/

babyblade41

davidmcn wrote: »

Though indemnity insurance would prop up the value back to where it ought to be, as the insurers would ultimately pick up any loss of value if someone challenges the title.

Well yes to an extent , but the solicitor would not go with just that and would want an adverse possession done., well mine wouldn't let me proceed and without finance.

If the garden isn't on the title then its not what I thought I was buying, so either it gets put right or I won't buy ,

My recent purchase in January ,the vendors had missed a big wedge of garden . When I checked I told my solicitor that's not correct and vendors went through an adverse possession.

Thankfully they had paper work right back to 1900s and it was registered incorrectly the last time , still required a site visit and a possessory title was granted

G_M

Tom99 wrote: »

If you sign up for a free account with Nimbus Maps you can view all of the title plan boundaries for the area, also check if this common area is registered.
https://app.nimbusmaps.co.uk/

Never used nimbus so not sure how this compares with the official Land Registry 'Map Enquiry'....

getmore4less

Planning portal is often good for boundaries.

Tom99

G_M wrote: »

Never used nimbus so not sure how this compares with the official Land Registry 'Map Enquiry'....

The Land Reg will only give the title number you cannot look at the title boundary line. With the free version of Nimbus Map you can look at all of the title boundaries at OS Master Map level, click on any one of them gives you the title number, plot size and, if owned by a company, the owners name.

Tom99

getmore4less wrote: »

Planning portal is often good for boundaries.

Yes it is but I think they would be map boundaries not the Land Reg title boundary.

blaise802001

babyblade41 wrote: »

Well yes to an extent , but the solicitor would not go with just that and would want an adverse possession done., well mine wouldn't let me proceed and without finance.

If the garden isn't on the title then its not what I thought I was buying, so either it gets put right or I won't buy ,

My recent purchase in January ,the vendors had missed a big wedge of garden . When I checked I told my solicitor that's not correct and vendors went through an adverse possession.

Thankfully they had paper work right back to 1900s and it was registered incorrectly the last time , still required a site visit and a possessory title was granted

Yes my sol has said I will have to go via squatters right. I thought this was going to be such an easy chain. I’m in private rented moving into an empty house and then this :rotfl: I’m just hoping it doesn’t take months