Building survey for sale and gutter overhang

Simmo2007

Hi all I would appreciate your thoughts please further to the Level 2 building survey on a detached house we are looking to purchase.  We were introduced to the seller by family whose daughter is the seller’s partner. We have developed a good relationship with them and shared the full report yesterday with them. There were no show stoppers and they are fixing cosmetic issues raised on the report for us now. However the report cites a gutter overhang onto the neighbours land from when an extension was done back in 2006. The seller who we are buying from said they were not aware of this when they purchased it in 2014. The neighbour at the time of building the extension did not raise it so maybe didn’t realise what had happened. The more recent buyer of the next door house in 2019 hasn’t raised it either. They have done significant work to their house and are staying long term according to our seller. I am thinking we take the risk not to raise given the time that has passed? But if we share the building report with our conveyancing solicitor will they make us raise it with the neighbour? Or will they advise it is our risk to take? I am just conscious of time constraints with stamp duty and also that the solicitor could take advantage of further costs around this issue! Thanks in advance : )

davidmcn

Your solicitor can't "make you" do anything, they can (and should) give you advice about it if you ask them. If they're also acting for your mortgage lender though they may feel a need to report it to them (though the easy way round it is probably just to not bring it up with the neighbours and instead get an indemnity policy).

princeofpounds

Yes, if you raise it with the solicitor then it will probably become a bit of an issue. That's because it is something that the neighbour could force you to remove, and it may be a cause of dispute. You could instruct the solicitor that it is not a problem for you and you are willing to take the risk. However they will also have a duty to inform your mortgage lender and see if they are also ok with it. I honestly don't know what they would say as I haven't seen an example come up on the board before (which may suggest it's not a show-stopper, hopefully someone with experience knows).

Of course you are technically duty-bound to inform them of this yourself, but it's such a minor thing (to the point of being missed by the previous buyer and the neighbour, who probably assumes it's been there for years anyway) I think would imagine it's of little consequence and hopefully you won't get people throwing accusations of mortgage fraud at you.

Bottom line is - the risk is that you are forced to remove the infringement. But in 5 years it will cease to be an infringement as you will have established prescriptive rights. Make sure you are given good evidence of when the construction was completed!

maisie_cat

We had this where an extension had been built in 1978 on our house and 2006 on the neighbour. The gutters overhung each other and the buyers solicitors asked for an indemnity policy for lack of easement. We told the buyers to get stuffed and I have no idea if they bought a policy or didn't bother.

Simmo2007

Thank you all for your responses they have been really helpful 😀