House purchase - retaining wall

siananne

Hi! Looking for a sounding board…we purchased a house in 2019 with a ten foot highway retaining wall in the front garden. Last year, a builder advised it might need some maintenance work and I started to wonder about responsibility as numerous legal websites suggested highways retaining walls can be the responsibility of the local authority. After a lengthy exchange with the council, they advised that although the wall was built to support a highway widening several decades after the house was built, maintenance responsibility was transferred to the home owner when the house was sold from council to private ownership. Unfortunately the conveyance document for our property which outlines this is missing. The council also stated that if the wall collapsed, not only would we be liable to rebuild it, but also the road above it. 

My query is - is it reasonable that this should have been highlighted to us by our conveyancer during the house purchase? We paid for the top level house survey which mentioned under ‘issues for our legal advisor’ that boundary responsibility should be clarified as the retaining wall may be a costly liability. Despite this and the fact that there was a photo of the wall in the survey, our conveyancing firm is claiming that the wall wasn’t apparent to them from the estate agent photos. 

Whilst I appreciate that maintenance of the wall should have been something we thought of also, it would never have occurred to me that we would be responsible for rebuilding the road if it collapsed and I feel completely let down by our conveyancer as we are now left with a liability potentially in the hundreds of thousands.

Grateful for any views from the forum - just wondering really if it’s worth us pursuing!

user1977

What did your conveyancer tell you about the title? Have you had legal advice confirming that what the council told you is correct, and enforceable (I presume the council also lost any record of the liability having been transferred)?

martindow

Have you asked the council to provide you with a copy of the document transferring the liability?  Is it just missing from your paperwork or missing completely?

pinkteapot

siananne said:

My query is - is it reasonable that this should have been highlighted to us by our conveyancer during the house purchase? We paid for the top level house survey which mentioned under ‘issues for our legal advisor’ that boundary responsibility should be clarified as the retaining wall may be a costly liability. Despite this and the fact that there was a photo of the wall in the survey, our conveyancing firm is claiming that the wall wasn’t apparent to them from the estate agent photos. 

Your solicitor won't see the survey unless you show it to them. Did you give them a copy to review? 

siananne

pinkteapot said:

siananne said:

My query is - is it reasonable that this should have been highlighted to us by our conveyancer during the house purchase? We paid for the top level house survey which mentioned under ‘issues for our legal advisor’ that boundary responsibility should be clarified as the retaining wall may be a costly liability. Despite this and the fact that there was a photo of the wall in the survey, our conveyancing firm is claiming that the wall wasn’t apparent to them from the estate agent photos. 

Your solicitor won't see the survey unless you show it to them. Did you give them a copy to review? 

Yes we provided them a copy of the full report

siananne

So the email I had from the council after over a year of chasing stated:

“The 1967 conveyance document confirms xx County Council undertook a road widening scheme circa 1967. As part of the scheme, the County Council, as the highway authority, constructed new boundary walls, gates and the steps were as part of the reinstatement works for xx Rural District Council who would have been the owners of the properties at the time and the local housing authority.

 

In 1974 under Local Government Reorganisation the properties passed from xx Rural District Council, to the City Council. Having reviewed the conveyance documents for the properties 26, 28 and 34, Officers confirm that when these properties were sold, the ownership and therefore maintenance of the front boundary wall was transferred to the purchaser of the property.

 

The conveyance document for no 36, is unclear as the inverted T mark missing on that boundary is not marked on the conveyance plan. The T marks can only assign boundary liability for those boundaries that will be shared with any retained land owned by the Seller after sale. The City Council did not own the land fronting that boundary in 1976, when the property was sold, and it was not the highway authority either, therefore the whole wall passed automatically on sale under the transfer deed to the purchaser at the time.

 

My officers conclude following legal advice that the retaining wall to your property no 36 is in your ownership and therefore as the owner you will be responsible for maintaining the wall.”

siananne

I can find no reference to a 1967 conveyance in my paperwork, only a 1976 conveyance - unless they got their digits mixed up. Perhaps I should request a copy - but isn’t this something my conveyancer should have got hold of? 

So our property report from the conveyancer contains a few lines on matters benefitting the property etc just stating that ‘these are referred to in the first schedule of the conveyance dated Feb 1976’ - no further detail, just a copy of the 1976 conveyance attached, no mention of boundaries or the retaining wall.

The 1976 conveyance states that the purchaser should keep in good repair boundary walls marked with an inward facing T - but there are none such marked on the plan. I assume this is what the councils reply refers to - therefore they’ve made the assumption it’s ours from our neighbours’ conveyances. 

I just feel like this is something that should have been picked up by our conveyancer..

Section62

siananne said:

I can find no reference to a 1967 conveyance in my paperwork, only a 1976 conveyance - unless they got their digits mixed up. Perhaps I should request a copy - but isn’t this something my conveyancer should have got hold of? 

I would expect the 1967 conveyance related to the district council transferring land to the county council for the purpose of the road widening.

If the district council held the 'housing' land as one entity, then I wouldn't expect to find a copy of the 1967 conveyance within your own title documents, as that (the highway) parcel of land had already been removed.  I.e. in just the same way that you wouldn't normally expect to see copies of your neighbour's conveyances with your documents, because they were never part of your own separate title.

silvercar

siananne said:

So the email I had from the council after over a year of chasing stated:

“The 1967 conveyance document confirms xx County Council undertook a road widening scheme circa 1967. As part of the scheme, the County Council, as the highway authority, constructed new boundary walls, gates and the steps were as part of the reinstatement works for xx Rural District Council who would have been the owners of the properties at the time and the local housing authority.

 

In 1974 under Local Government Reorganisation the properties passed from xx Rural District Council, to the City Council. Having reviewed the conveyance documents for the properties 26, 28 and 34, Officers confirm that when these properties were sold, the ownership and therefore maintenance of the front boundary wall was transferred to the purchaser of the property.

 

The conveyance document for no 36, is unclear as the inverted T mark missing on that boundary is not marked on the conveyance plan. The T marks can only assign boundary liability for those boundaries that will be shared with any retained land owned by the Seller after sale. The City Council did not own the land fronting that boundary in 1976, when the property was sold, and it was not the highway authority either, therefore the whole wall passed automatically on sale under the transfer deed to the purchaser at the time.

 

My officers conclude following legal advice that the retaining wall to your property no 36 is in your ownership and therefore as the owner you will be responsible for maintaining the wall.”

Id be researching with Land  Registry who actually owned the land fronting the boundary. I find the conclusion that the council didnt own it so therefore it passes to the purchaser a bit too convenient. If the purchaser does own it, then how big is that piece of land? A map or sketch would help.

TBagpuss

When you got the survay did you ask your conveyancer to check the boundary issue? You had notive that it was a possible issue at that time and, unlike the solicitor will have presumably visited the property and seen the actual wall. 

FId the solicitor say or do anything to suggest that you were *not* responsible for the wall? It's pretty normal for  the wall or other boundary between a house and the road to be owned by / responsibility of the homepwner so I would have exepected that to be the default andfor your solicitor to only have told you if it were diferent, for instance if the deeds showed it was the property of the highway dept or council and they had rights to access your property for maintenace, for instance. 

siananne

silvercar said:

siananne said:

So the email I had from the council after over a year of chasing stated:

“The 1967 conveyance document confirms xx County Council undertook a road widening scheme circa 1967. As part of the scheme, the County Council, as the highway authority, constructed new boundary walls, gates and the steps were as part of the reinstatement works for xx Rural District Council who would have been the owners of the properties at the time and the local housing authority.

 

In 1974 under Local Government Reorganisation the properties passed from xx Rural District Council, to the City Council. Having reviewed the conveyance documents for the properties 26, 28 and 34, Officers confirm that when these properties were sold, the ownership and therefore maintenance of the front boundary wall was transferred to the purchaser of the property.

 

The conveyance document for no 36, is unclear as the inverted T mark missing on that boundary is not marked on the conveyance plan. The T marks can only assign boundary liability for those boundaries that will be shared with any retained land owned by the Seller after sale. The City Council did not own the land fronting that boundary in 1976, when the property was sold, and it was not the highway authority either, therefore the whole wall passed automatically on sale under the transfer deed to the purchaser at the time.

 

My officers conclude following legal advice that the retaining wall to your property no 36 is in your ownership and therefore as the owner you will be responsible for maintaining the wall.”

Id be researching with Land  Registry who actually owned the land fronting the boundary. I find the conclusion that the council didnt own it so therefore it passes to the purchaser a bit too convenient. If the purchaser does own it, then how big is that piece of land? A map or sketch would help.

Thanks, I’ll look into that. There’s not effectively any ‘land’ there now as such, the wall sits directly below the pavement - it was built solely to support the road widening which raised the level of the land in the front gardens of the properties at the time. From the photo below - the tiered wall section jutting out supports steps and I accept is ours, the query is the wall behind.