Building/planning Issue re: our future neighbour's extension between exchange and completion

Skip25

Since we exchanged contracts on our new property exactly a week ago, the current vendor has encountered an issue with the building work on the neighbour's new extension encroaching on our future property. The neighbour's architect made a 'mistake' and was 40cm out on the height of the extension, so they have built the extension 40cm taller than approved, which meant potential problems re drainage off the roof; our vendor writes  "(the neighbours) have overlapped a small section of their roof cover onto our parapet wall immediately adjacent to their property without our permission".  It seems that prior to our vendor finding out about all of this the neighbour instructed their roofer to do a workaround to deal with the issue of drainage, which has included overlapping their roof onto our future property and installing a new flashing, to supposedly ameliorate any future issues with impact of rainwater drainage causing potential damp to our future property. The vendor and the neighbour have been in lengthy correspondence over the past week to resolve this (not involving us). They have only appraised us today, and that, between them, they have come to an 'agreement' that the neighbour will be responsible for any future water damage to our new property. The 'agreement' is loosely worded and in emails, not actually any 'legal' agreement with specifics such as timescales, choice/approval of contractors etc. Considering we have 'exchanged' contracts and the vendor has entered into another 'contract' with the neighbour since then, can we (1) reject their agreement and insist on legally binding specific terms that we approve of; (2) request an independent survey report (at their expense) of the issues prior to any agreement being made; (3) request 'sight' of the building officer's approval of the revised height of their new extension, and approval of the workaround, (4) request written reasons as to why the vendors were not appraised of the issues at the time they arose, why they were not given the opportunity to approve the 'workaround', and why the neighbours saw fit to trespass and do 'work' on the vendor's property without permission (the roof of their new extension is now within the boundary of our future property). We are unable to actually visit the property to inspect any of this at present as it is much too far to travel during lockdown. I wonder if anyone can give me some sensible advice please? Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer.

davidmcn

Your rights are those in the contract you've exchanged - you can by all means ask (nicely) for other things over and above what you're entitled to, but you need to look to your contract first to see what your vendors are actually obliged to do.

Skip25

Just to be clear... if it makes any difference, the work that was done without the vendor's permission has been done since the survey, and has only been highlighted since we exchanged.

princeofpounds

So, to summarise...
You exchanged contracts on a property, but are yet to complete.
You have been notified since exchange that a neighbour has built a slightly overhanging roof/gutter.
Your vendor is trying to make you happy by striking an informal agreement with the neighbour around this overhang will be managed over time.
That's a fair summary?

Do you know if the overhang was built before or after exchange? I'm not sure you're clear on that point and it's important.

Firstly, go and see the problem yourself if you can, and decide whether it is practically/legally something you want to fight or not. If it's a few mm of land that you don't care about, you probably don't want to get legal about it. But it sounds like that's not the case.

Speak to your solicitor. I am sure that you are not bound by anything your neighbour agrees. The real problem you have here is one of infringement of your future boundary, not building regs or planning permission breaches by your neighbour (although you may report those as well if you like).

The contractual issue here is going to be around the standard conditions of sale that you have agreed with your vendor. In particular Section 5, which basically states that risk for the property is transferred to you at the moment of exchange, with your vendor now occupying some kind of trustee position as titular owner, but you being the one holding the underlying beneficial interest in the property. So it may be for you to sort this out, as long as the problem really did arise after exchange and the vendor did not misrepresent - worth checking, if you can! Now I'm no expert, so I can't guarantee this is accurate, but worth looking at and discussion with your solicitor.

Did you put your own legal cover and insurance on the property immediately after exchange?

anselld

Not sure about the legal standing of any emails.  However, if the height is not as the approved plans it would need to be agreed by the planning officer via and amended planning application.  It is not really a matter for building control.

Was there a party wall agreement in place?   Any unauthorised modification to the party wall should be handled by the PW surveyors.

Skip25

princeofpounds said:

So, to summarise...
You exchanged contracts on a property, but are yet to complete.
You have been notified since exchange that a neighbour has built a slightly overhanging roof/gutter.
Your vendor is trying to make you happy by striking an informal agreement with the neighbour around this overhang will be managed over time.
That's a fair summary?

Do you know if the overhang was built before or after exchange? I'm not sure you're clear on that point and it's important.

Firstly, go and see the problem yourself if you can, and decide whether it is practically/legally something you want to fight or not. If it's a few mm of land that you don't care about, you probably don't want to get legal about it. But it sounds like that's not the case.

Speak to your solicitor. I am sure that you are not bound by anything your neighbour agrees. The real problem you have here is one of infringement of your future boundary, not building regs or planning permission breaches by your neighbour (although you may report those as well if you like).

The contractual issue here is going to be around the standard conditions of sale that you have agreed with your vendor. In particular Section 5, which basically states that risk for the property is transferred to you at the moment of exchange, with your vendor now occupying some kind of trustee position as titular owner, but you being the one holding the underlying beneficial interest in the property. So it may be for you to sort this out, as long as the problem really did arise after exchange and the vendor did not misrepresent - worth checking, if you can! Now I'm no expert, so I can't guarantee this is accurate, but worth looking at and discussion with your solicitor.

Did you put your own legal cover and insurance on the property immediately after exchange?

Hi - thank you for your reply. Yes, that's a fair summary. I'm led to believe that the work they did on our vendor's side of the boundary wall (without permission) was because of concerns of water drainage from the higher than planned roof of their extension potentially causing water damage to the family room/kitchen of our future property. I don't know when that work was completed, just that it was certainly after our survey two weeks ago, it may have been before exchange though. We do wish to keep it all as civil as possible and avoid any legal wrangles, but at the same time protect our future property from any potential damage, and also ameliorate any future issues with a survey should we decide to sell.  We cannot inspect the work during lockdown as it is some considerable distance from where we are now, but will as soon as we can. I just wonder if it's worth having it inspected by a professional to ensure that any work done is actually of reliable quality.

Skip25

anselld said:

Not sure about the legal standing of any emails.  However, if the height is not as the approved plans it would need to be agreed by the planning officer via and amended planning application.  It is not really a matter for building control.

Was there a party wall agreement in place?   Any unauthorised modification to the party wall should be handled by the PW surveyors.

Thank you for your reply. We received no notification of a party wall agreement in papers prior to exchange, and believe that there is none in place.

Slithery

Skip25 said:
I don't know when that work was completed, just that it was certainly after our survey two weeks ago, it may have been before exchange though.

Did you not check the property just prior to exchange? Because that's the state that you have agreed to buy it in.

Skip25

Slithery said:

Skip25 said:
I don't know when that work was completed, just that it was certainly after our survey two weeks ago, it may have been before exchange though.

Did you not check the property just prior to exchange? Because that's the state that you have agreed to buy it in.

The survey was completed a week prior to exchange, a few days before lockdown.

Rural_Puppy

Moving home is considered a reasonable excuse to be out of your house. 

jaybeetoo

You should be talking to your solicitor (that’s what you’re paying them for) and not rely on advice from a public forum.