Path issue in our chain?

NYCbride

Hi all,
We thought we were nearing exchange after a long process waiting for searches etc. We have now discovered there is an issue with the property our sellers are buying and I’m worried the whole chain is going to break!
The issue is a small piece of land at the end of a driveway (between the fenced edge of the property and the road) with two conflicting piece of paperwork one saying the land belongs to the house the other saying it doesn’t. Our seller is worried because please will walk across it when using the footpath that if it belongs to the house and someone trips on it he will be liable.
He had started looking into insurance but has since gone to the local council to try clear it up. With the plan being if it is his if the council will take this piece of land (sure that’s not the technical term but you know what I mean). I’m worrying about of chain in 2 parts:
1. If the land does belong to the house and the council won’t take it on is he going to pull out 
2. We have a cash buyer and she threatened to pull out last week. The longer we leave this the more she pays in rent.
I feel considering the council are working from home and there is no phone lines at the moment (you just leave a message) and the fact our searches took 8 weeks this could be a long process. 
We had all agreed a completion date of next Friday and that feels really unlikely now.

I just don’t know what to do. We had talked about paying for our buyers rent (or a portion of it) for another month to save the chain. But I’m now worrying about our seller pulling out because of this path in which case we have paid for our buyers rent and lost out on the house anyway.
Having had a look there is no short term rentals in our area at the moment (likely due to COVID) and I also have a dog, 3 year old and I’m working from home so it wouldn’t be idea anyway. We have no family here. So I can’t break the chain and move into rented, and again I’m not sure id want to do this if the seller is going to pull out anyway.
I just feel stuck in this helpless middle situation not knowing what to do and how to salvage this. It’s such a lot of money to lose and i have just got my daughter used to the idea of moving there (regularly visiting a park at the end of the road so she’s desperate to live in walking distance to her new fave park!) I’m just gutted and feel so down about it.
I guess what I’m asking is has anyway been in similar situations regarding bits of land like this?  How did it work out? Do you think it’s likely that our buyer will become too impatient or that this piece of path will be a sticking point for our seller. We know they only put their house on the market because of this property so are unlikely to want to sell if they aren’t buying that house.
Thanks for anyone who got this far! 

anselld

The reality is that you cannot be the saviour of the chain, it is not your problem to resolve.  The best you can do is make your vendor aware of the pressure you are under and the fact that a further delay may collapse the chain.
For what it is worth house insurance normally covers public liability but that is not necessarily going to convince them if they have started seriously worrying. 

davidmcn

NYCbride said:

Our seller is worried because please will walk across it when using the footpath that if it belongs to the house and someone trips on it he will be liable. 

As above, if this is literally his only worry then (a) it's a pretty obscure risk and (b) it's almost certainly covered by standard home insurance (in the same way that it covers visitors slipping/tripping on his "proper" driveway).