Buying a house with boundary issues!

AQUAAURA

Hi
We are in the process of trying to buy a house and have stumbled into some boundary issues, as follows:

1. The property has irregular boundaries due to the division of old coal sheds between this property and next door. So this property has a shed which projects over the boundary line into next door's garden, and next door has a shed which projects over this boundary line, all covered by one shared roof. This is not unique to these 2 properties - all the houses in the street and next street have the same layout.
The Land Registry plans are incorrect as show a straight boundary. Our solicitor has asked the seller's solicitor to address this with Land Registry. I understand that the plans will need to be redrawn. Roughly how long will this take?

We were hoping this would be a quick purchase as is vacant (it is bring sold by the original owner's daughter) however, it has already been 8 weeks since the offer was accepted.

2. The second issue, which we found out about later, was that the house we are buying has a conservatory which was built a few inches over the neighbour's boundary line. The neighbour consented to this at the time (they were actually a family member), but nothing formal was ever drawn up. The conservatory was built in 2013 and apparently to building regs (although we have not yet seen this - our solicitor has requested the documents).  How much of an issue is this? I hear that boundary disputes can be really difficult to sort. The neighbour is still the original neighbour and so presumably will sign anything necessary to agree to the overlap. Will this be easy to sort? Might it cause us any issues down the line if someone else moves in next door and queries why the conservatory overhangs their land? Or if we need to sell the property on?

We would really appreciate some advice on this! Not sure how to proceed here and likely timescales to sort these issues and proceed with the purchase.

Many thanks!

TheJP

Why do the boundary lines need to re-drawn, can the sheds not be move to within the boundary? I would ask current seller to have something drawn up regarding the conservatory that they accept that it is permitted writhing their boundary and have the boundaries amended before completion if possible.

I'm not very experienced in boundaries just my opinion. 

Snuggles

TheJP said:

Why do the boundary lines need to re-drawn, can the sheds not be move to within the boundary? I would ask current seller to have something drawn up regarding the conservatory that they accept that it is permitted writhing their boundary and have the boundaries amended before completion if possible.

I'm not very experienced in boundaries just my opinion. 

I would imagine these will be brick built old coal houses, not wooden sheds, so not easy to move.

dimbo61

Nothing happens quickly in the buying process anymore.
Land registry has a huge backlog so asking to change the boundary line will add months and months onto the length of time for you to buy.
Is this a probate house ?
Has the daughter got probate sorted ? 
Solicitors have to do due diligence and searches and surveys may cause long delays 

AQUAAURA

TheJP said:

Why do the boundary lines need to re-drawn, can the sheds not be move to within the boundary? I would ask current seller to have something drawn up regarding the conservatory that they accept that it is permitted writhing their boundary and have the boundaries amended before completion if possible.

I'm not very experienced in boundaries just my opinion. 

Yes, sadly the sheds are substantial interlocking structures built in stone so can't be removed. 

Thanks for the advice!

AQUAAURA

Snuggles said:

TheJP said:

Why do the boundary lines need to re-drawn, can the sheds not be move to within the boundary? I would ask current seller to have something drawn up regarding the conservatory that they accept that it is permitted writhing their boundary and have the boundaries amended before completion if possible.

I'm not very experienced in boundaries just my opinion. 

I would imagine these will be brick built old coal houses, not wooden sheds, so not easy to move.

That's right. There's no chance of moving and harder as they are interconnected. It's a tricky one!

Thanks for your comment.

AQUAAURA

dimbo61 said:

Nothing happens quickly in the buying process anymore.
Land registry has a huge backlog so asking to change the boundary line will add months and months onto the length of time for you to buy.
Is this a probate house ?
Has the daughter got probate sorted ? 
Solicitors have to do due diligence and searches and surveys may cause long delays 

At thanks for your reply. I was fearing that! Yes, probate is all done. So that's something! The daughter wasn't aware of these issues until now either. We were hoping the purchase would be straightforward as we've got a long 4 months or so of renovations to do once we complete! 😬

AQUAAURA

Just had an update... Land Registry say their plans are correct according to the original deeds, so say the deeds themsevles are wrong. They say that's a matter for the solicitor, not them.
I've just contacted the solicitor about this. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge on this? 

Thanks so much.

TheJP

AQUAAURA said:

TheJP said:

Why do the boundary lines need to re-drawn, can the sheds not be move to within the boundary? I would ask current seller to have something drawn up regarding the conservatory that they accept that it is permitted writhing their boundary and have the boundaries amended before completion if possible.

I'm not very experienced in boundaries just my opinion. 

Yes, sadly the sheds are substantial interlocking structures built in stone so can't be removed. 

Thanks for the advice!

So they aren't a shed then. 

AQUAAURA

TheJP said:

AQUAAURA said:

TheJP said:

Why do the boundary lines need to re-drawn, can the sheds not be move to within the boundary? I would ask current seller to have something drawn up regarding the conservatory that they accept that it is permitted writhing their boundary and have the boundaries amended before completion if possible.

I'm not very experienced in boundaries just my opinion. 

Yes, sadly the sheds are substantial interlocking structures built in stone so can't be removed. 

Thanks for the advice!

So they aren't a shed then. 

I'm confused at your reply and tone? In my post you will see I wrote "old coal shed" not "shed". Wales is full of them! This particular one is probably around 5 meters x 3 meters (but divided between the 2 properties in a jigsaw layout). And the "coal sheds" are connected on each side to the actual houses. Obviously a little wooden shed wouldn't be an issue.

Land_Registry

If this the plans are right as per the deeds provided on registration then you probably have two options here but do rely on your solicitor
The first is for the seller and neighbour to straighten things out by exchanging/transferring land as appropriate. 

The alternative would be a claim as to ownership of the ‘missing’ land but a probate sale might make that tricky as a lack of knowledge re the facts 
Whilst either option adds delay clearly the differences are significant for both seller and neighbour. And if there’s a confirmed purchase they have grounds to expedite matters and reduce the wait time markedly. 

As far as the conservatory goes a “few inches” isn’t going to show up on a title plan so they’re maybe nothing to do re the registered details on that point alone. You could ask them to complete a boundary agreement which could then be noted on both titles. Or confirm matters in writing as suggested. But again one for the conveyancer to advise on