Advice appreciated on vendor fixing fence

Onmyway2market

I am buying a property and my surveyor identified problems with a boundary wall that was built by the neighbours. My lender and I want this remedied before exchange.

The neighbour rents out his property and is very unwilling to work with the vendors to deal with the problem. His response was a play to buy try to buy the property. I think he is hoping he can put off buyers and force the vendors to sell to him.

The vendors want to sort out the problem with or without his consent because it present a real and imminent danger to the property and possibly people or pets. What I am not clear about is whether I become responsible in the future for maintaining the wall or fence or whether by fixing the wall by building a new one or replacing it with something else ownership of the boundary structure passes on to the property I am buying. In other words I want to avoid any assumed responsibility for the boundary structure in part or in full.

Will indemnity insurance cover this?

wilfred30

Why would your lender care about a problem with a boundary wall?  I doubt it will have any affect on the value of the property.

eddddy

You mention a fence then a wall - which is it?

If you think it really is a dangerous structure which might cause injury or death to somebody, you can report it to the council. If they agree, they can serve an enforcement notice on the property owner.

But if, for example, it's just wobbly/rotten fence posts, I guess you could just add some fence posts on your side to stop it falling into your garden- maybe so that if it falls over, it can only fall towards your neighbour's garden.

Is the mortgage lender really bothered about this?

Onmyway2market

I don’t know but that is what the lender has said and expects to visit to inspect once work has been carried out. They did acknowledge that it should not affect the property because the surveyor said the same in the report. Your guess is as good as mine as to why they have now required a resolution before lending.

Onmyway2market

It is a combination of wall and wooden fence but it is the wall part which is about 3-4m in width that is the problem. Both the wall part and the fence part is supported by a rubble wall about 1m in height. 

I don’t own the property. I’m in the process of buying it. I don’t want to jump in and start doing my own thing.

wilfred30

Onmyway2market said:

I don’t know but that is what the lender has said and expects to visit to inspect once work has been carried out. They did acknowledge that it should not affect the property because the surveyor said the same in the report. Your guess is as good as mine as to why they have now required a resolution before lending.

I'm sorry but I simply don't believe that.  There is no legal obligation on anyone to have a boundary wall/fence at all.
The only way your vendor can sort out the problem without the neighbour's consent is to put a fence/wall on their land inside their boundary.

Onmyway2market

My post is not clear. The entire boundary structure is just under 100ft and a small bit of it at the start is wall and the remainder is wooden fence. The wooden part seems okay.

eddddy

What is the exact wording of the mortgage condition?

Onmyway2market said:

I don’t own the property. I’m in the process of buying it. I don’t want to jump in and start doing my own thing.

You wouldn't do the work yourself, you would tell the vendor what needs to be done in order to get your mortgage agreed. 

So it sounds like the vendor needs to report the dangerous wall to the council, or maybe it's easier for the vendor to construct some kind of buttress - if you and your mortgage lender are happy with that solution.

Onmyway2market

It may be unbelievable to you Wilfred but that is the situation as it stands. My conveyancer had a duty to inform them. He did and that is what they have responded with - no lending until problem is fixed. They asked for an engineer to assess the problem, problem be fixed and valuer revisit property. 

Edddy, I thought about the buttress but was advised against this as I would then be faced with the problem (which would only be temporarily halted by the buttress) and the uncertainty which is currently the responsibility of the vendors. The bank would also not be happy with this.

robatwork

Your vendor is entitled, at any time, to build a wall/fence on his own property. As long as it's adequate it will protect from the wall collapsing. Just ensure this is put to bed before you sign.

eddddy

Onmyway2market said:

It may be unbelievable to you Wilfred but that is the situation as it stands. My conveyancer had a duty to inform them. He did and that is what they have responded with - no lending until problem is fixed. They asked for an engineer to assess the problem, problem be fixed and valuer revisit property. 

Has an engineer assessed the problem?

If the engineer has reported that it's not dangerous - presumably you need to send that report to the valuer
If the engineer has reported that it's dangerous - you or the vendor needs to report it to the council.

Or the engineer might say that buttresses would be a long-term solution - but it sounds like you're not happy with that - which is fine.

(Or maybe the cost of an Engineers assessment can be saved, if it's reported direct to the council. The mortgage lender might accept the council engineer's assessment.)


I suspect the bank's valuer is simply saying that there may be a problem with the wall, but they are not a specialist - so it needs to be looked at by a specialist.