Solicitor questions

Cheillie2020

Hi, 
I have had an email from our solicitors regarding our house sale with some questions from our buyer solicitors. 

Can anyone help me as the below might as well be in a different language...
(I know I could ask my solicitors but my case handler isn’t in until Tuesday and I’d like to get the answers back over by then)

1. Please ask your clients to confirm that they have had sight of the restrictive covenants pertaining to the property as described in the transfer dated October 2007 and further confirm whether any of these have been breached during their period of ownership.

2. As to the rights referred to 2007 Transfer, please ask your clients to confirm that they have enjoyed all the rights contained therein free from interference, obstruction or expense.

3. Please ask your clients to confirm whether the reservations detailed in the title have ever been exercised and if so, please confirm
whether there have been any issues in respect of the same.


thanks for any help 🙂

davidmcn

We don't know what the covenants/rights being referred to are. Your solicitor will, so talk to them about it.

loubel

When you bought the property your solicitor would have told you about the rights, reservations and covenants affecting it. The buyer's solicitor wants to know whether there have been any issue with these during your ownership eg if you have a right of way over someone else's land, have you been able to use it; have you done something to the property you shouldn't have. Either dig out the purchase report and remind yourself of them or ask your current solicitor for copies of the title and transfer referred to so you can check.

Cheillie2020

Well, I can’t remember what they are if any. But we’ve only painted a few walls and put some carpet down haha so I can’t imagine we’ve done anything outside of any constrictions anyway. 

So I guess answer to Q1 is “nothing has been breached”

q2 - what does it mean “ enjoyed all the rights contained therein free from interference, obstruction or expense.”

I guess I can ask my solicitor to show me copy’s to make sure. 

flashg67

Sounds like a common question as I had similar. My estate had a restriction on satellite dishes, but many people had them, including me, so I said 'yes' I had breached the covenant, but it didn't stop the sale.
But these are the kind of things they mean in Q1, which you need to find out if you don't have the original stuff from when you bought the house.
Q2 is asking if you've had any problems exercising your rights in the deeds - so say you had a shared drive, has a neighbour ever  blocked access etc

MrBog

Our solicitor asked those same questions to our vendors. Their replies were:

1. No breaches that we are aware of
2. Yes
3. No issues

Who is your solicitor if you don't mind me asking? )

Cheillie2020

flashg67 said:

Sounds like a common question as I had similar. My estate had a restriction on satellite dishes, but many people had them, including me, so I said 'yes' I had breached the covenant, but it didn't stop the sale.
But these are the kind of things they mean in Q1, which you need to find out if you don't have the original stuff from when you bought the house.
Q2 is asking if you've had any problems exercising your rights in the deeds - so say you had a shared drive, has a neighbour ever  blocked access etc

Ah yes, I remember a few things like 
- sat dishes (which were actually already installed when we purchased the house, and every house has one, so is it worth even saying!?)
- don’t cut the front garden tree down 
- no caravans on the drive

those are all I remember. 

But I don’t remember seeing them on paper. 

Nor do I have any copies of the deeds, titles etc which presumably that’s where these type of things are listed? 

So, who would have these and is it pretty normal for people not to have their own copies? 

Presumably the solicitors that we used to purchase our house back in 2014 would have them? Or are they publicly accessible? 

For example, should I be requesting my own copies of these for our onward purchase? 

Sorry, many questions. 

Tiglet2

1. Please ask your clients to confirm that they have had sight of the restrictive covenants pertaining to the property as described in the transfer dated October 2007 and further confirm whether any of these have been breached during their period of ownership.

2. As to the rights referred to 2007 Transfer, please ask your clients to confirm that they have enjoyed all the rights contained therein free from interference, obstruction or expense.

3. Please ask your clients to confirm whether the reservations detailed in the title have ever been exercised and if so, please confirm
whether there have been any issues in respect of the same.



1.  Do you have a copy of the Transfer dated October 2007?  If not, ask your solicitor to provide it.  Then look at the section regarding Restrictive Covenants and have a read of the covenants.  Do you think you have broken any of the "rules"?  If not, you can confirm that you have not breached any of the covenants as far as you are aware.

2.  The same Transfer document will also detail any rights you have, for example, access over a neighbouring property for maintenance or for rear access to and from the property through a passageway which is owned by another property.  If you have had no problems with gaining access, then you just need to answer "confirmed".

3.  The same Transfer document will detail the reservations.  Have you ever utilised any of these reservations?  If so, were there any problems associated with your use?  Again, you just need to confirm whether you have needed to utilise the reservations and, if so, confirm whether or not there were any problems with the use.

Tokmon

Cheillie2020 said:

flashg67 said:

Sounds like a common question as I had similar. My estate had a restriction on satellite dishes, but many people had them, including me, so I said 'yes' I had breached the covenant, but it didn't stop the sale.
But these are the kind of things they mean in Q1, which you need to find out if you don't have the original stuff from when you bought the house.
Q2 is asking if you've had any problems exercising your rights in the deeds - so say you had a shared drive, has a neighbour ever  blocked access etc

Ah yes, I remember a few things like 
- sat dishes (which were actually already installed when we purchased the house, and every house has one, so is it worth even saying!?)
- don’t cut the front garden tree down 
- no caravans on the drive

those are all I remember. 

But I don’t remember seeing them on paper. 

Nor do I have any copies of the deeds, titles etc which presumably that’s where these type of things are listed? 

So, who would have these and is it pretty normal for people not to have their own copies? 

Presumably the solicitors that we used to purchase our house back in 2014 would have them? Or are they publicly accessible? 

For example, should I be requesting my own copies of these for our onward purchase? 

Sorry, many questions. 

Why don't you have any copies of the paperwork from when you bought the propert?.

Buying a property is usually the biggest purchase anyone makes in their life and people seem to not even take the time to actually read the paperwork which states what they are buying!.

You really should be more on the ball when you buy your next property and actually read, understand and keep copies of any and all paperwork.

Cheillie2020

Who actually holds these papers? Are they obtainable by anyone? I’m guessing out solicitor has them some how? 

And the other solicitor (that we used to purchase this house back In 2014) has them too? 

TBG01

Copies can be obtained from the Land Registry. Anyone can go on the Land Registry website and pay a small fee to obtain them.

You should've received copies of them when you purchased the property (We usually send it with the property report and contact etc to sign) but like others have said, some people don't even bother to read them.

I've lost count at the amount of times I've seen them returned (even though are letter clearly states they're for your records) with the signed contract etc