New build land dispute

Section62

jrawle said:

If the wrong plan, where you do not own the strip of land, is registered, it's game over. You won't own it and can do little, except pursue the developer for compensation perhaps.

Characterising the situation as "game over" is misleading. But at the moment we don't know whether the neighbouring plot has been registered by the new owner so it is all up in the air.

It is also worth bearing in mind the "general boundary" nature of the records the Land Registry holds, it isn't necessarily quite as absolute as your posts are suggesting.

jrawle said:

You should just refuse to sign anything. It's then up to the developer to resolve the situation to your satisfaction as they will not be able to register the property with the land registry until you are happy.

Why would the developer care if the OP opts not to register the property they have purchased?  It isn't for the developer to do the registration, that's the OP's choice.

In addition to other things, the OP's solicitor will be mindful that until the OP's registration is completed, the whole of their property is potentially vulnerable to being registered by someone else.  The OP's solicitor won't want things delayed excessively as that could lead to further problems and potentially allegations of professional negligence if the OP's situation got worse.

silvercar

yangzijiang said:

yes, I agree it is a battle between us and the developer. We don't intend to upset our neighbour at all really.

Our solicitor, who upsets me on a daily basis on numerous occasion throughout the process buying the new house, has pushed us to sign the new title, or she will carry on registering the wrong old one to the land registry.

We replied to her: we are starting a consultation with a dispute solicitor. Why rushing to register?

Can someone help me understand, other than rushing to close her case, why is she pushing us to sign? and what impact it will have on us registering the title plan with both strips of land around our house (we don't know if our neighbour has registered or not).

Thank you all for your thoughts and words on this so far.

I'd be making it clear in an email to your solicitor that you are not consenting to register the new title unless it includes the disputed path. Just avoids the risk of her doing it and then saying you hadn't instructed her otherwise.

theoretica

But if the solicitor does register the first title with the disputed path - which is I think what they said they will do unless OP signs the new plan - that will either put the OP into dispute with their neighbour who think they own that strip, or presumably fail to go through with the land registry if that strip is already registered as the neighbour's.  So moving the problem away from one between the OP and developer and into one between OP and neighbour.

ProDave

yangzijiang said:

Our solicitor, who upsets me on a daily basis on numerous occasion throughout the process buying the new house, has pushed us to sign the new title, or she will carry on registering the wrong old one to the land registry.

Let her do that, register the original plan that shows you owning both paths and see what happens.  That seem a good way to bring this dispute to a proper head.

silvercar

Land Registry have long delays in the registration process at the moment.

I don’t know what would happen if two plots were registered with overlapping land. Would Land Registry spot it? Would the developer intervene if they knew it was happening?

Paging @Land_Registry.

Land_Registry

silvercar said:

Land Registry have long delays in the registration process at the moment.

I don’t know what would happen if two plots were registered with overlapping land. Would Land Registry spot it? Would the developer intervene if they knew it was happening?

Paging @Land_Registry.

The overlap would be spotted if both plots are registered. 

If it’s a new development then the developer will have submitted an estate plan prior to the plots being sold. If the plot transfers deviate from that plan then that’s another reason to raise it as an issue which would stop the registration process and put it back in the hands of conveyancer and developer