Vendor doesn’t actually own their garage…

housebuyer143

Morble93 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

I know the OP is in Birmingham and I am not, but I fear that considerations of the value of the garage at £2k or £10k will be far lower than the value ends up at.

It is also quite possible that the LA never sold any of the garages and this has now come to their attention so there will be an attempt to recover / sell all the garages and / or sell the whole block of garages as a development site.  That will be a slow process.

The vendors may try to claim the garage under adverse possession - that will also be a slow process.

The OP may need to start to think and decide whether they will go ahead with the house purchase and at what value if there is no garage.

That is a very good point. The good thing is that the other garages do belong to the neighbours - I checked the land registry. 

Also, you can't claim adverse possession on registered land if the owner (being the council) dispute it. Which they certainly will now they are aware of it. 
Hopefully it won't be a big problem but do factor in the legal costs for both sides if negotiating the costs. 

Eldi_Dos

It would be interesting to know if anyone had paid rates on the garage since 1992.

I am puzzled why anyone on the council would say they will sell to present owner of the house as one would think they are obliged to get the best price for garage on the open market.

There is a good chance the present owner of the house is going to get into a dispute with the solicitor who handled their purchase especially if they have been paying rates and insurance for a garage they do not own and now find out they can not sell.If they do that may delay council being able to sell garage.

OP, you have to revalue what you are willing to pay for house and if your offer is not accepted walk away.There is no certainty you will get the garage and the price may be more than you are willing to pay. Lots of people with motorbikes are always looking for garages to over winter their bikes.

user1977

Eldi_Dos said:

I am puzzled why anyone on the council would say they will sell to present owner of the house as one would think they are obliged to get the best price for garage on the open market.

In theory maybe, but they'll have a de minimus value below which they're hardly likely to insist on the current occupier being evicted and the garage going to auction.

Flugelhorn

Morble93 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

I know the OP is in Birmingham and I am not, but I fear that considerations of the value of the garage at £2k or £10k will be far lower than the value ends up at.

It is also quite possible that the LA never sold any of the garages and this has now come to their attention so there will be an attempt to recover / sell all the garages and / or sell the whole block of garages as a development site.  That will be a slow process.

The vendors may try to claim the garage under adverse possession - that will also be a slow process.

The OP may need to start to think and decide whether they will go ahead with the house purchase and at what value if there is no garage.

That is a very good point. The good thing is that the other garages do belong to the neighbours - I checked the land registry. 

interesting that the others are owned by the neighbour, presume at some point the people in your proposed new house years back were offered the garage for sale and declined - though somehow it remained in use. 
sorry this is really the vendors problem and could take an age to sort

GrumpyDil

user1977 said:

Eldi_Dos said:

I am puzzled why anyone on the council would say they will sell to present owner of the house as one would think they are obliged to get the best price for garage on the open market.

In theory maybe, but they'll have a de minimus value below which they're hardly likely to insist on the current occupier being evicted and the garage going to auction.

And if it is only one garage in a row that will keep the price down as they won't have an option to sell a decent plot for development.

As an aside if the other houses were sold with garages I'm wondering if this was an oversight in the original sale by the council and the garage was included in the original sale but the odds of finding evidence of that 30 odd years later? 

Morble93

Ok… new finding… we’ve found out that the garage is mistakenly registered to the next door neighbour, along with their own garage, meaning they technically own two garages!! The vendor rang the land registry to query this and they are saying it’s actually an error and the council own the garage after all. But for some reason it’s registered to the neighbour?! 

I am SO confused 

user1977

Morble93 said:

we’ve found out that the garage is mistakenly registered to the next door neighbour, along with their own garage, meaning they technically own two garages!! The vendor rang the land registry to query this and they are saying it’s actually an error and the council own the garage after all. 

What exactly have you been told (and by whom)? I suspect something's been lost in translation.

silvercar

Morble93 said:

Ok… new finding… we’ve found out that the garage is mistakenly registered to the next door neighbour, along with their own garage, meaning they technically own two garages!! The vendor rang the land registry to query this and they are saying it’s actually an error and the council own the garage after all. But for some reason it’s registered to the neighbour?! 

I am SO confused 

How would Land registry know that it is a mistake and that the council own it?

With a very compliant next door neighbour, the seller may be able to sort this out, particularly if the next door neighbour has lived there a long time and is happy to sign something to say that it has always been assumed to be the seller's.

caprikid1

"I am already paying £10k over the asking price as there were several offers put to them (I’m a first time buyer)."

Who told you there were several offers ? The trustworthy honest estate agent !.

With soon to be falling house prices I am in no doubt what I would do !

Morble93

user1977 said:

Morble93 said:

we’ve found out that the garage is mistakenly registered to the next door neighbour, along with their own garage, meaning they technically own two garages!! The vendor rang the land registry to query this and they are saying it’s actually an error and the council own the garage after all. 

What exactly have you been told (and by whom)? I suspect something's been lost in translation.

So we were told by the vendor and the estate agent that they’d found out that the council owns the garage. 

I explained the situation to a friend (who is an architectural technician) who kindly looked up the property for me on the land registry map. They pointed out that the garage in question actually forms part of the next door neighbour’s boundary. I’ve got screenshots of this.

I relayed this information back to the estate agent and told them to tell the vendor. They then rang me back and said the vendor already found this out herself too - she had spoken to the land registry though who have claimed it’s an error, and it shouldn’t be registered to the neighbour, it should be registered to the Council…

My mind is blown and this all feels very weird!