House buying: boundary problems

mizoinuk

My offer was accepted on my dream house mid-September, but as we were closing to signing the contract a major problem was unveiled.
The land registry map obtained by my solicitor did not contain half the garden. It appeared that the current owner of the house has been living in the house for 7 years without realising a mistake that happened when he bought the house from the previous owner who expanded the garden by buying an extra piece of land after he purchased the main house plot. When the previous owner died, his family did not know that there are 2 land registry entries; one for the house with half the garden, and another for half the garden. This issue was not identified by the solicitors of the current owner when he bought the house.

The current owner emailed the widow of the previous owner, who replied to him saying that she sold him the entire house and garden and she will act upon this by getting a solicitor to transfer the ownership of the remaining piece. However, her solicitor contacted the current owner demanding £10k+legal fees to do the land transfer. I offered the current owner to split the costs so that we can move ahead quickly, but he feels that he is being blackmailed and does not want to give up on what he believes is his right.

In your view, does the current owner have any legal rights to have that piece of land on the basis that this was a mistake? 

Davesnave

The solicitor who conveyed the property to your vendor almost certainly didn't visit the property, so it was up to them when they purchased to spot any discrepancy between the title plan and what they understood as the extent of the plot in the real world. Normally, the purchaser is shown the plan and asked if it seems correct.

The fault therefore lies primarily with your vendor; the extra land was never sold to them, hence someone taking advantage now and asking £10k for it + expenses. They can probably do that.

The vendor might have some grounds for complaint against their conveyancer if they were never asked to confirm the extent of the property, but it's unlikely they could prove that after such a long time.

AlexMac

Agree with Davesnave.

Whenever I've bought, my solicitor has sent me the land registry plan and asked me to specifically inspect and confirm to my satisfaction that the property and boundaries are as shown, plus checking any related issues such as any trees subject to a protection order.  On one occasion, my then solicitor identified a trivial discrepancy in the red-line plan so she insisted that the plan and title were cleaned up (in that case by a deed of variation) at the seller's expense. That's what I ws paying her for; to protect my interests.

If the person you're buying from didn't do that, or if their solicitor didn't ask them to check 7 years ago, that's not your responsibility.  I can't imagine that your vendor or anyone would throw away the file, including the usual "Report on Title" and other papapers in the pack of conveyancing documents which most Solicitors give their clients- especially after only 7 years, so even if they are now using a different solicitor for their sale to you, they should be able to establish if they were poorly advised and raise a complaint.

Which of course doesn't help you in the short term; especially as you don't want this to drag on.  As, in my non-expert view, you are clearly the innocent victim of someone else's screw up, you should be asking your solicitor to apply a bit of backbone on this; stressing that your offer to pay part is already way more than generous!  You offered in good faith, based on what they said they were selling; you're now being reasonable; demand they reciprocate!  Good luck!

Land_Registry

You do need to rely on your solicitor here
In my experience it’s very likely to be a No re a legal claim based on the mistake. Land ownership has to be transferred so if there was a mistake and it wasn’t, then it wasn’t. 

Your buyer could claim ownership in another 5 years though so worth discussing with your solicitor and buyer re selling with supporting evidence of occupation/ownership for 7 years plus an indemnity policy in case original owner comes back to enforce ownership - but that last bit could be a problem now re getting insurance as the risk is so much greater as the still registered owner is aware that they are the legal owner still. May not be an issue in reality but for insurance purposes it’s probably very significant

As far as tracking back 7 years goes as others mention it could be difficult to force anything through with solicitor/registered owner. Any contract probably referred to the one title as they didn’t realise/check there were two. But worth asking the Q to see what results it brings? 

mizoinuk

Thank you all. The vendor is in discussions with the previous owner to see if land transfer can be arranged at no consideration. 

In you experience, how long does land transfer take if the previous owner wants to transfer the land? I’m conscious about the end of stamp duty holiday. I want to estimate how far I’m from completion since all other issues related to the purchase are clear, including mortgage, searches, etc.