Defect in the title of the property I'm buying - missing documents

canaldumidi

p00hsticks said:

BraveStave said:

Yeah, it feels like this issue has been known for a long time by everyone but us. The seller will have been very aware of the issue at least, but they have not volunteered this information. On one hand I can see that they wouldn't want to flag up the problem because they just want to sell the house, on the other hand they now risk losing a buyer after stringing us along for 10 months. Had they been up-front about the issue we may never have put in an offer and they would have had 10 months to find a buyer that would.

Too late for you, but for the benefit of others looking to put offers on properties;

Your initial post suggests that these restrictions are contained in the charges register section of the title ?

If this is the case, then if you'd just paid £3 to get a copy of the title from the Land Registry for yourself you'd have been aware of them from the get-go and could have started asking questions before you even put an offer in.

https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

Indeed. I know most people don't, but I buy the Title and Plan (3 each) on any oroperty I'm seriously considering, before even offering, and often when just going for a viewing.......

BraveStave

p00hsticks said:

Too late for you, but for the benefit of others looking to put offers on properties;

Your initial post suggests that these restrictions are contained in the charges register section of the title ?

If this is the case, then if you'd just paid £3 to get a copy of the title from the Land Registry for yourself you'd have been aware of them from the get-go and could have started asking questions before you even put an offer in.

Fair enough, I'll consider that a lesson learned and will do that in future for sure. 
Definitely worth doing some of this digging yourself early then, if the information is so easily accessible.

user1168934

BraveStave said:

Sorry to double post - I couldn't see a way to edit.

Just in case it's relevant,  I thought I'd expand on the history of these properties.

The road is built on land that used to have a railway line on it, and a factory - many many years ago.
These residential properties were built on the land in 2011, there were no other residential properties there prior to that.

So whatever these missing documents are, I doubt they relate to residential properties, as none existed back then. It'll be related to the land, possibly the factory or railway line. 

I read your earlier reply and I was thinking that since it was a new built in 2011 the covenants must be pertinent to the land - glad that you confirmed it.

Insist the seller to get in touch with the builders and try to obtain these documents. 2011 was not that long ago and they must have had these documents when dividing up the piece of land into plots. Also digital copies of documents was quite normal in 2011 so I am sure the builders would have a digital copy of these somewhere.

Also ask the seller to check with his neighbours if they have these documents (because it's the same piece of land).

I suspect the only reason these documents are "missing" is because when your seller was buying in 2014, his solicitor did not want to go through the trouble to obtain these and he simply got them indemnity to reduce work for himself. It is a common practice by solicitors.

Also, in my opinion, since it is pertinent to the land and especially one that had a factory and a railway line (as opposed to open farmland for instance) this could be a much more serious issue. A normal restriction on a normal property would be something benign like "You cannot raise animals in the backyard". In your case it could be much more intrusive like "Such and such people must always be provided access or right of passage to this piece of land that goes through your property".

I have a friend who lived on a street with terraced houses built on land similar to what you have described. She told me that they had a restriction that all the houses in that row have a right of passage to each other's back garden. All of them have to maintain a door in the fence for the neighbouring property. Because access must be provided to all residents they can't even lock the door. Also imagine trying to build an extension at the back of such a house.

I am not trying to dishearten you. All I am saying is proceed with two eyes open.

Land_Registry

Others have posted already and largely covered matters 
Only thing we would add is be careful re your research in trying to find ‘missing information’ you have or are insured against. You may invalidate your policy as in essence you are changing the risk profile. 

We don’t deal with indemnity policies such as these so the comment is simply based on experience around similar threads online posted over the years