Land not transferred by solicitors

RAS

jabbabroadley said:

Hi All,

In 2019, my wife and I bought a property, unknown to us at the time the property covered two parcels of land. The builder had purchased additional land next to the plot he owned to get enough land to build our current house.

we found out about this recently. Our solicitors had stated that the sellers' solicitors hadn’t provided this information and were therefore negligent. Upon receiving the file we identified they had and it was our solicitors that were neglient.

Assuming England or Wales.

Normally I'd say that the OP should have check the boundaries themselves as the solicitor hadn't visited the property. I was given a Victorian plan that covered the building site, with NO indication of which of the three properties built on it I was buying! And told very firmly how important it was that I ascertained on the ground which I was buying.

But in this case, the solicitor had been told there were two titles, the buyer was selling both in the asking price and the solicitor should have

a) given the TWO plans to the OP to check
b) alerted the OP to the fact they were buying two titles, no least as it affects the registration fees
c) asked if the OP wanted the titles merging on registration.

It may be that somewhere in the documents originally sent to the OP, the solicitor refers to "titles", but I'd argue that at the very least the word "two" needs to preface that and the implication made explicit.

jabbabroadley

Thank you there have been many replies to this and most have asked for more information, therefore I will reply to all in one message below

• the house is a new build, end of terrace. Land was owned by our neighbours (previously end of terrace) to the side of their house. They purchased additional land to have enough room to build our house
• The parcel of land not transferred is effectively our garden area
• Our solicitors had received information from the sellers solicitors of the two parcels of land.In the Property Information Form (TA6) provided by the seller, under section 1 in relation to boundaries, the seller did in fact provide details of the additional plot of land and the corresponding title number. 
• The information regarding the two parcels was never explained to us.
• The diagram below/attached is what we were presented with. In yellow is the parcel of land not transferred 

UnderOffer

If you were presented with that plan and didn’t query the diagonal line cutting your garden to barley anything, I’m not sure you can wholly blame your solicitor. Why are the costs to rectify this so high? 

jabbabroadley

I understand your point. But surely they still should have transferred the two parcels and not solely one? If the plot diagram was a circle and we agreed, we would still be ok if they had transferred the two Parcels as instructed by the sellers solicitors  

Tiglet2

The solicitor asked you if the plan (shown above) matched what you thought you were buying.  The solicitor is looking at the area outlined in red.  You said it did match.  You didn't say "what about the bit in yellow, I am buying that as well, shouldn't there should be a second plan showing this bit outlined in red?"  Unfortunately being a FTB is not an excuse.  The solicitor doesn't visit the property so they are relying on you to confirm that the plan matches.  As you confirmed it did match, they won't be raising any further enquiries about it.

It seems to me that there has been a serious mis-communication here.  The seller's solicitor should have sent two Title Plans and listed both title numbers on the contract and transfer.  Do you have copies of those documents to check?  So either the seller's solicitor didn't draft the initial contract correctly or they did and your solicitor didn't realise there were two titles being transferred to you.  If this is your solicitor's error, they should put it right for you free of charge.

user1977

jabbabroadley said:

I understand your point. But surely they still should have transferred the two parcels and not solely one? If the plot diagram was a circle and we agreed, we would still be ok if they had transferred the two Parcels as instructed by the sellers solicitors  

Except you're buying from developers, and it's pretty commonplace (indeed the norm) that you don't buy everything the builders own - because they might be using the rest of the land for other things, or sold it to somebody else. If it was a "normal" sale by an owner-occupier who had e.g. extended their garden, it would be a bit more obvious that you'd expect to get everything they own.

But as I mentioned above, what does the planning show? If that says that the house was only consented if its garden included the extra parcel of land, I think that pushes the onus more onto the solicitor to ensure it was included.

pinkteapot

Tiglet2 said:

It seems to me that there has been a serious mis-communication here.  The seller's solicitor should have sent two Title Plans and listed both title numbers on the contract and transfer.  Do you have copies of those documents to check?  So either the seller's solicitor didn't draft the initial contract correctly or they did and your solicitor didn't realise there were two titles being transferred to you.  If this is your solicitor's error, they should put it right for you free of charge.

This seems to be an important point. If you can prove your solicitor received two titles from the seller's solicitor, then omitted one, you may have better grounds for complaint. 

You may still be on shaky ground though... It's absolutely normal for your solicitor to send you the copy of the plan, with the red outline, and say "Is this what you thought you were buying?" (in more complicated words!). They rely on your answer because they haven't seen the property. So, they're right that you confirmed that's what should be included and didn't say "hang on, the garden's bigger than that" which would have told them to go looking for an error on the title, or a second title.

However, if they had a bit of paper in front of them that they should have passed to you and didn't, you might get somewhere... 

The point in the reply above is also important re planning permission. 

I would be getting all the facts together that I can - such as these - then following the solicitor's formal complaints procedure (if you've not done so already). Then escalating from there. But be wary of spending too much pursuing the solicitor as it may just be money down the drain. 

jabbabroadley

Thank for all your replies, really appreciate your advice and comments. I have come back collectively.

• Our property was purchased from our now next door neighbour, previously end of terrace. It is a new build but not built by a major home builder, only a single property was built.
• The red lined area is pointed at the end, we assumed this was our garden, our garden is very small.
• The yellow area is not sectioned off and was not presented to us as a separate piece of land/plot. Had it been we would have queried the weird out of place land, landlocked by surrounding gardens.
• The sellers solicitor told our solicitor in the property information pack that there were two plots, we have reviewed the file.
• Not at any point did our solicitor mention the two plots of land to us during the purchase of the property.

Many thanks all

JB

loubel

So the seller mentioned in the property questionnaire that he'd bought some extra land to build the garden but his solicitor drafted a contract to sell only the plot with the house on it. The seller didn't correct them on this and question why the 2nd title wasn't on the title. Your solicitor received a contract to sell one title and sent the plan to you and you didn't tell them that the garden wasn't shown on the plan either. 

You can try raising a formal complaint but, as everyone has already said, you didn't tell your solicitor that the garden was missing. You expect them to have known this despite not having viewed the property. What exactly did the seller say in the property information form that makes you believe the solicitor should have known that the garden was missing when you (and the seller and the seller's solicitors) managed to miss this? 

jabbabroadley

The property information form asks the following questions and below are the sellers solicitors answers:

1.2. If the boundaries are irregular please indicate ownership by written description or by reference to a plan:

Yes, 2018/2017 transferred to <new address>

1.3 Is the seller aware of any boundary feature having been moved in the last 10 years or during the seller’s period

of ownership if longer? If Yes, please give details:

Yes, <plot number> from <sellers address to <new address>

1.4 During the seller’s ownership, has any adjacent land or property been purchased by the seller?

If Yes, please give details:

Yes, <plot number> from <sellers address> to <new address>

————————————

The answers provided account for plot 1 and 2 in question. 1.3 answer relates to garden land purchased from another neighbour (Yellow shape) 1.4 answer relates to our neighbours (the builder) land being transferred (red shape).