Help please - mislead by seller? Land registry issue

ohgoodgrief

Looking for some advice please. 

We are at the early stages of conveyancing and have uncovered an issue with the land advertised to us by agent and seller. I have attached a screenshot to try and make this simpler. Blue is land owned by people behind, red is the property we have offered on. The area in blue in front of “our property” is the land we were told was included. 

We were told on a number of occasions that the property has ample off road parking (large driveway) to front and side of property by agent and seller.

We have received land registry documents and discovered the ample off road parking area is actually owned by property behind and land registry says only use for access not parking. 

Seller is claiming they were told when they bought property in 2019 that the land was theirs (obviously didn’t check the documentation) and agent is saying they went off what seller told them. 

Our solicitor has said we need to push for reduction in offer as it has been misrepresented to us. Also suggested we speaking to land owners to see if we can come up with a legal agreement to “lease” land from them for parking. 

I’m at the point of walking away as agent has indicated they don’t think seller will reduce price as they claim they didn’t know (they don’t drive so have never needed to park at the property). My husband is keen to try and come to some sort of resolution - but i would welcome  any advice please.

ohgoodgrief

Oh and the agents are still saying it has ample off Road parking so they haven’t misrepresented the property - I’ve asked for where this off road parking is and been hit with a wall of silence 

UnderOffer

To the right of house no.2 and within the red border is that your garage? I’m assuming you have a right of way (ROW) only to this garage, so you can drive over the land but not park on the blue shaded area. If you require additional parking then I’d probably look at other more suitable properties. 

Or approach neighbours to hear what they say, (will give you a good idea of how they might be when living Nextdoor), bear in mind any amendments to the land registry docs or creation of a lease can take several months and extend the buying process. 

ohgoodgrief

UnderOffer said:

To the right of house no.2 and within the red border is that your garage? I’m assuming you have a right of way (ROW) only to this garage, so you can drive over the land but not park on the blue shaded area. If you require additional parking then I’d probably look at other more suitable properties. 

Or approach neighbours to hear what they say, (will give you a good idea of how they might be when living Nextdoor), bear in mind any amendments to the land registry docs or creation of a lease can take several months and extend the buying process. 

That’s correct. It’s frustrating as agent is still saying there is ample off road parking - which there clearly isn’t. Husband is keen to approach the neighbours but I am also aware this could take a long time and we could potentially still be waiting in 6 months time. 

ohgoodgrief

Oh and the garage to the immediate left of the shaded blue is also “ours”. Unfortunately neither of them are big enough for our two vehicles, the single is tiny and the double would only fit one of our vehicles in. I am so disappointed as was set on this place.

eddddy

Unfortunately, you cannot force the seller to accept a reduced offer.

As far as the estate agent is concerned, these are the rules...

7i   The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 require you to disclose any information of which you are aware or should be aware of in relation to the property in a clear, intelligible and timely fashion and to take all reasonable steps to ensure that all statements that you make about a property, whether oral, pictorial or written, are accurate and are not misleading.

Link: https://www.tpos.co.uk/images/codes-of-practice/TPOE27-8_Code_of_Practice_for_Residential_Estate_Agents_A4_FINAL.pdf

So the key question is "should the estate agent have been aware?". Were there any clues that a 'property professional' should have spotted when they looked at the property?

The Property Ombudsman says that estate agents must download the title register for any property they put on the market. But they don't explicitly say they must download the title plan. (The title plan should have shown up the problem.) 

The estate agent is clearly aware now - so they should definitely inform other prospective buyers, if it goes back on the market.

  
If your purchase falls through because of this, and the Estate Agent is a member of the Property Ombudsman Scheme (most are) - you could consider complaining to the Ombudsman, who might order the estate agent to pay you back your lost legal fees, survey fees, etc...

...IF the Ombudsman thinks the estate should have been aware.

ThisIsWeird

The blue immediately to the right of 'your' property appears to cover a brown driveway, that leads to two (or even 4?) garages? The LH garage is the only one shown within 'your' boundary, so that seems to make it pretty clear that even if you 'owned' that driveway, the other garage owners would have RoWs over it.

As to the blue land further to the driveway's right, that is simply either included or not included (almost certainly - according to the deeds map - the latter) with your property.

It is largely immaterial whether the vendor was acting in (staggering) ignorance, or was obfuscating on the true ownership. But since the LR deeds map is pretty clear and unambiguous on the true boundary of your proposed property - it's as outlined in red - I would personally approach this as if looking at it for the first time, with only a single garage, and a RoW over that seemingly-shared driveway, being included. Possibly you would also be permitted to park immediately in front of your own garage, but would that be enough for you? 

By all means try what has been suggested - explore whether the owner of the blue is prepared to compromise or lease out land or rights, but - really - what are the chances?!

If, when you first looked at that property, the included land was 'correctly' described by the EA as being exactly as shown ringed in red on that deeds plan, would you have dismissed the property as being unsuitable at that point? If so, that is almost certainly what it still is.

But if it is still doable with only the land ringed in red, you should surely be expecting a truly whopping reduction in price to continue. I mean, a huge reduction - the blue land in question, that you were told would be yours, is almost the same size as the plot the house sits on.

CSI_Yorkshire

Sounds like this property isn't suitable for you.  Walk away.

Getting a discount wouldn't suddenly invent parking.

All part of property purchasing, that's why you pay the conveyancers, surveyors etc.

ohgoodgrief

This is where it gets complicated. On the first plan we have a single garage that has been converted into a room. It’s not a garage anymore. There is then a single garage next to that belonging to neighbours (not the ones behind who own the land in front). We then own a double garage (see additional plan) on the edge! The single garage is not used as a garage as these neighbours don’t have a vehicle and have it set up as a home gym. 

TBG01

I sound like a broken record, but I can't emphasize this enough, the estate agent is not acting in your best interest.

So of ourse they're going to say there is ample parking. They aren't going to risk losing out on that commission by you pulling out, especially when they know theres zero comeback on them after completion.

UnderOffer

ohgoodgrief said:

This is where it gets complicated. On the first plan we have a single garage that has been converted into a room. It’s not a garage anymore. There is then a single garage next to that belonging to neighbours (not the ones behind who own the land in front). We then own a double garage (see additional plan) on the edge! The single garage is not used as a garage as these neighbours don’t have a vehicle and have it set up as a home gym. 

What a strange set up. Am I understanding this correctly, you would own the garage on left  and double garage on right, but not the adjoining garage in middle? 

You are also not permitted to park on the driveways leading to the garages? You only have a ROW to pass over and park inside garages?