House purchase held up by missing title

Sjay94

Morning,

I’m hoping someone can help with an issue we’re currently having with our house purchase...

We are currently in the process of buying our first home, and neither ourselves or the seller have an upward chain, however we are already 13 weeks into the process 🙄

The house sale should apparently include a walkthrough at the side of the house part owned by our property and next door. Our solicitor has discovered that this title is not on the sellers deeds, so now the seller has to go back to their previous solicitor who needs to now trace the previous seller (from over 10 years ago!)

Is there anything we can do to speed up this process? Can land registry help?
Many thanks in advance

Alter_ego

Isn't this the kind of thing solicitors suggest an insurance policy for?

AdrianC

Sjay94 wrote: »

The house sale should apparently include a walkthrough at the side of the house part owned by our property and next door. Our solicitor has discovered that this title is not on the sellers deeds

Well done - you've sat down with your solicitor and made sure the map of what you're buying ties in with what you thought you were buying. You'd be amazed how many don't. Including, by the sound of it, your vendor.

so now the seller has to go back to their previous solicitor who needs to now trace the previous seller (from over 10 years ago!)

Is there anything we can do to speed up this process?

Nope.

Can land registry help?

What's on the LR registration is what was registered on the LR registration when the property was registered. When was that? I presume this issue predates that...

I suspect that it's going to be discovered that everybody assumed, rather than checked... In which case, you have to accept that what you're buying isn't quite what you thought it was... or walk away. Since next-door will also have been using this passageway, adverse possession probably isn't an option.

G_M

Have you lookd at next door's LR Title Plan? Does it include all, or part, of the walkway?


I assume it was the seller, or estate agent, who told you it was "part owned by our property and next door."? If it transpires it is wholly owned by next door, would that be a show-stopper for you?


Indemnity insurance may help by paying you compensation for any financial loss if, for example, the neighbours deny you use of the walkway, but it will not actually help you use the walkway if it is not yours.

Sjay94

I’m new to this so apologies if I’m not responding to individual responses in the normal way.

We’re not bothered about the walkway, so finding out we would not own it (if it just belongs to next door) would not make us change our minds.

I believe the vendor would be required to pay for the indemnity?!, however I would then have the same issue if at any point I came to sell the house 🤦🏼!♀️

The previous solicitor’s searches to find the previous seller have not been successful, and they have now advised they will need to check death records to see if they have passed away!

It was ourselves that located the issue as we noticed all communications between our solicitor and theirs didn’t mention the walkway which we we’re told about by the vendor when viewing. The vendor has a key to the walkway, so I assume next door are under the impression that it is also owned by the vendor.

As I’m a first time buyer, everything that arises is new to me... how would I be able to access next door’s title?
I have looked on gov.uk and it does suggest that the property is associated with another title (I assume this is the walkway)

Many thanks,

Sjay94

I believe so, however if we ever came to sell we’d be back in the same position

Sjay94

I believe the house has only been sold twice since it was built. My understanding is that the walkway was jointly purchased by the previous owner with next door over 11 years ago, and that the current seller’s solicitor never bothered to take into consideration the walkway back then!

They now believe the previous seller may have passed away whilst still legally owning the walkway

AdrianC

Sjay94 wrote: »

We’re not bothered about the walkway, so finding out we would not own it (if it just belongs to next door) would not make us change our minds.

Ignore it and tell your solicitor to just continue with the purchase, then.

G_M

Sjay94 wrote: »

......... how would I be able to access next door’s title?
....s,

Click the link I gave you in post 4 above!

We’re not bothered about the walkway, so finding out we would not own it (if it just belongs to next door) would not make us change our minds.

So instruct your solicitor to proceed without further delay. Unless of course your mortgage lender has raised it as an issue.

I have looked on gov.uk and it does suggest that the property is associated with another title (I assume this is the walkway)

Do a map enquiry here to identify and download any other Titles in the immediate area.