Help! Buying a house which was misadvertised

hercs182

Hi - I am new to posting on the MSE forum (I can usually find answers to my questions in threads which have already been posted!) - looking for some advice/opinions on the following:
We are FTBs and had an offer accepted on a house 6 weeks ago.  We have had searches, homebuyers report etc back, and most has gone smoothly so far, but an issue has come up regarding the car parking spaces with the house. 

The property is a 4-bed and was advertised by the EA as having two allocated car parking spaces - when we viewed the house, we were told by the estate agent these were the 2 spaces (side by side) outside the front of the property.  However, The Title Deeds and Land Registry only show one parking space within our boundary. 

The vendors have come back and said the parking spaces are in tandem (one behind the other), but when we've been to see the house, there is only one space marked out. Parking behind ths marked-out space (as the vendor's have suggested is correct) would mean we would be parking on shared access, which are to be kept clear at all times.  The vendors are quite insistent that this is the parking arrangement despite the Land Registry Documents saying otherwise and also the fact that no other cars on the development are parked this way.  We are very sure the vendors have got this wrong.
We really don't want to lose the house, but we do think it was misrepresented when we put in our offer, and are trying to be sensible in terms of the effect it might have on resale, so are considering lowering our offer by around £5k.  (We think any more than that, the vendors just won't go for).
Has anyone had a successful experience with lowering their offer during the conveyancing process?
And does anyone have any views on one parking space for a 4-bed house? Would you be put off buying a house with only one space? 
Thanks!

davidmcn

hercs182 said:

And does anyone have any views on one parking space for a 4-bed house? Would you be put off buying a house with only one space?

That's going to depend on what the norm is for the area and how easy it is to find a space elsewhere.

Mgman1965

To be perfectly honest, if there is no other public parking very nearby (i.e., on street) without restrictions, even two spaces would put me off as your implying you have two cars, and what about visitors.

britishbug

The only thing you can do is raise it with the vendor to see if you can lower the price or not, they’ll either say yes or no and you’ll need to make a decision based on their answer. There’s pros and cons for every house and you have to make compromises somewhere, for example I viewed a house the other day with no off street parking, I would of brought it if I liked the house enough but I didn’t, it just depends on what else the house you’re buying has on offer. 

hercs182

davidmcn said:

hercs182 said:

And does anyone have any views on one parking space for a 4-bed house? Would you be put off buying a house with only one space?

That's going to depend on what the norm is for the area and how easy it is to find a space elsewhere.

Thanks - there is space for on-street parking nearby (but not a lot of it... so not the easiest for visitors etc).  There's also 2 allocated visitor spaces, but they are shared between 4 properties... It's a fairly common setup in the area we live in, but we'd have expected a 4 bed to have at least 2 allocated spaces...

jamesperrett

That's why it is always worth downloading the title document from the Land Registry before you put in an offer. Sometimes it is worth downloading the documents for neighbouring properties as well.

Chumy

Consider the value when you want to sell as well. I wouldn't buy a 4bed house with just 1 allocated parking. Most buyers of 4bed house usually have more than 2 adults driving or soon to be driving. 
If you want the house enough to consider this, then it should be reflected in your purchase price as well as selling price later on to make up for the stress of always looking for parking

AdrianC

You haven't exchanged, so of course the price is up for negotiation as a result of what you find during conveyancing.

Whether the vendor agrees or not is another question. If they refuse, will you walk?

[Deleted User]

The question for yourself is more along the lines of 'Can i live here with 1 parking space?'.  Thats all you've officially got.  If you can live there fine then crack on and try get a reduction due to the lack of a 2nd space.    If you need to park 2 cars then is a £5k price reduction really going to solve the lack of a parking space? 

Cakeguts

You are looking at a 4 bedroom house with only one parking space.  The Estate Agent information comes from the vendor they don't check the land registry.

Is this 4 bedroom house "good value for money" in other words is it a 4 bed but for the same price in the local area you would only normally expect to be able to afford a 3 bed?  If this is the case then it has a problem.  All cheaper houses than you would expect have a problem.  The problem with this house is that it is a family house but it only has one parking space.   It seems to me that the vendors are very keen to make out that there are in fact two parking spaces. This makes me think that the vendors know that the house is difficult to sell because it actually only has one space and that parking in that area is a problem. 

What you have to decide is do you want to buy this house knowing that there is a parking problem and that sometimes you will not be able to park the second car close to the house and that any visitors that you have will find it difficult to park.  This isn't really a money situation it is parking problem and you cannot solve it.

If you can't live with the one parking space then the only option you have is to withdraw your offer and look for another house with two parking spaces.

Remember when you come to sell this house you will have the same problem and may have to sell it cheap because of the parking situation.

hercs182

Thank you everyone, all of your comments are really helpful.  Where we are at is that we would be ok with 1 car parking space, but are more concerned that it will be an issue for buyers when we come to sell again.
Finding a house within our budget in our area hasn't been easy - and we have saved a very good deposit, so the house hunt process was disheartening to say the least!  We just feel so stuck as to what we should do!