Builder wants land back for free

Semple

m0bov wrote: »

If the OP speaks with his sol, then his sol might be compelled to talk to the lender, which could then revise or pull the mortgage.

I honestly would move my fence and be done with it. If the builder starts getting legal, then fine but if the deeds are correct and you fence is in line with it, then tough. OP will be on the loosing end if they start making a fuss.

Based on this and your previous reply, I don't think you've read the OP correctly, or at least not understood it.

The OP cannot just sign this land away. As he has a mortgage the lender will have a vested interest in the property as a whole. If they've based their valuation on the size of the land in the deed then this will cause big problems. As adjusting the boundaries to that of which they should have been will likely cause some devaluation of the property. It wouldn't be right for the OP to accept this 'devaluation' and would be something the builder would need to compensate for - honest mistake or not, it's not your problem and you shouldn't be expected to burden a financial responsibility for it.

The two outcomes are basically:
- the lender says the property is worth less and the builder has to compensate for this
- the lender says there would be no change to the value of the property, it's upto the OP whether to sign over the piece of land, charge the builder for the loss of land, or refuse to sign it over full stop.

The builder could still purse the land legally if the OP refuses to hand it over, however if the lender is saying the OPs property would be devalued then the courts could force the builder to compensate the OP.

@OP you absolutely need to seek legal advice, if the builder gets ***** with you about it, just say that you have to seek legal advice because your lender also needs to agree on the way forward.

davidmcn

Lungboy wrote: »

My conveyancer compared the deeds from LR to Google earth and street view and talked me through the boundary on all sides to make sure it was as I understood it, even to the point of checking if maintenance hatches he spotted were inside my boundary or not. I assumed that was standard procedure.

Fairly commonplace these days (now that the information is available on our desktops), but I wouldn't say it was standard procedure - and irrelevant in this case as we're talking about a newbuild property which probably didn't have any fences up at the relevant time, and likely won't be covered by Google for a few years yet.

silvercar

When I last bought, the valuer visited my property and based its value on the house and garden as he could see it. So if OPs did the same, the valuer would have seen where the fences were and valued accordingly. Hardly likely that valuer would then have referred to plans and added some value for a small pocket of land outside the fence.

silvercar

Has OP said if 10 meter square means 10 times 10 metres or 10 square metres?

AnotherJoe

silvercar wrote: »

When I last bought, the valuer visited my property and based its value on the house and garden as he could see it. So if OPs did the same, the valuer would have seen where the fences were and valued accordingly. Hardly likely that valuer would then have referred to plans and added some value for a small pocket of land outside the fence.

As its a newbuild, it may not even have been there let alone fences in place when it was valued, its more likely it was valued at a desk reading plans which would have shown it having a much bigger garden (according to OP) than it has by the fences. That would have been taken into account when valuing.

davidmcn

silvercar wrote: »

Has OP said if 10 meter square means 10 times 10 metres or 10 square metres?

No, that's one of the several things which haven't been clarified.

pinkshoes

GarryF wrote: »

Thanks for the advice everyone. I’m going to seek legal advice now. However after reading a lot of comments I’m thinking of just agreeing to new plans to avoid court.

Lots of the comments are from people who are not aware of the complexity of this situation.

This is NOT your decision to make on your own. You will need the agreement of your mortgage company. They have loaned you the money based on the house and plot size.

If they devalue your property from say £200k to £180k, do you have a spare £20k to give the mortgage company if they want to reduce your loan given the lower valuation? I'd say the builder should be paying this!!

m0bov

OP, you might want to roll over and sign your life away to the builder, but the bank owns the garden. I really suggest you ignore the builder and move your fence. Or at least ignore the builder.

Otherwise there is a whole world of pain awaiting you.

Davesnave

davidmcn wrote: »

No, that's one of the several things which haven't been clarified.

Although a mistake of 100m2 on most new builds would be unlikely to pass unnoticed!

silvercar

Davesnave wrote: »

Although a mistake of 100m2 on most new builds would be unlikely to pass unnoticed!

Then again 10 meters squared could well be 10m wide by 1m depth and losing a metre off the end of your garden, that in any case lies beyond your fence isn't that exciting for the owner or the lender.