Unclear ownership of land after purchase of house

Noah_OA

Hello,

I recently bought a house in an auction. However, whilst rennovating I was told that part of the garden which I had bought had also been put up for auction after the sale had been complete. I have had many issues with the auction company - the original ownership of the house was unclear and they didnt respond to any emails for a week regarding me and my sollicitors quereys. Additionally, I was charged a late fee of £4,000 after a one day late completition even though the sellers sollicitors and auction house were holding up the process by not responding to emails. Ive checked the legal pack for the house and there seems to be two outlines of land I own - its not consistantly the same land across all the documents. I dont know what to do or if i cant do anything about this- have I been conned into buying a house where I only own half the garden when I was toured around and shown the whole garden as well as on the auction pictures with the garden? I feel like ive been decieved. Furthermore, on the auction listing, they have stated there is planning for two detached houses however, the area is conservation land so isnt that misinformation and extremely misleading to who would want to buy it anyways?

lincroft1710

Your solicitor should have sorted all this out and should also not have agreed for you to pay a late completion fee if it was not your fault. 

Who told you part of the garden wasn't yours?

Noah_OA

The neighbours told me that the back garden was up for auction- he wanted to see if it was okay if he bought it. I then went on the auction house website and indeed saw the garden up for sale on their website. I honestly dont know what to do.

Noah_OA

They have only sold half of the garden at the back to try and sell the other half to get extra money - all this without me knowing. Ive been shafted of my garden

eddddy

Noah_OA said:

However, whilst rennovating I was told that part of the garden which I had bought had also been put up for auction after the sale had been complete.
...
Ive checked the legal pack for the house and there seems to be two outlines of land I own - its not consistantly the same land across all the documents. 
....
Furthermore, on the auction listing, they have stated there is planning for two detached houses however, the area is conservation land so isnt that misinformation and extremely misleading to who would want to buy it anyways?

Are you sure this isn't the case:

• There was a single property - comprising of a house and large garden - which was spilt into 2 parts to be sold at auction.

• You bought the house and and a small bit of garden - and somebody else bought the rest of the garden, with planning consent for 2 houses. 

It's very likely that the legal pack would contain 2 plans - one being the title plan before the split, and the other being the title plan for split-off part that you are buying

And the auctioneers would tour prospective bidders around the whole property - because some will be interested in the house, some will be interested in the garden building plots, and some will be interested in both.



Which is the auction house website and lot number for what you bought, and for the garden?

Noah_OA

Hello,

Thank you very much - you have explained it very well.

Would there be any way to dispute this if it was misrepresented at the time of purchase or is it a done deal? Initially the only thing uo for auction was the house and then they added the garden afterwards after the sale was complete - the auction is now next month for the garden. In the sense that they didnt initally put it up as 2 seperate plans - only one to think you would be getting the whole property and then the next so you had no clue thats all you were getting - there was no information on the garden being sold separately

BlueVeranda

If there's planning permission you should be able to find it on your local council's website.

It sounds like quite a big piece of land if they think they could get two detached homes on it. Is there any access to it that's not through your garden or your neighbours gardens? 

RHemmings

Is it possible that the vendors did this - broke the property up into two parts and sold separately, without changing the title plan stored by the Land Registry? Is it possible that checking the title plan before purchase wouldn't reveal this, but it would only be found out post-purchase? 

user1977

Noah_OA said:

Would there be any way to dispute this if it was misrepresented at the time of purchase or is it a done deal? 

Generally with auctions you need to rely on the legal pack, I think any attempt to claim misrepresentation would be very difficult. Didn't your solicitor advise you before the auction on what you were buying? Why aren't you asking them?

loubel

You need to look at the Contract you signed if you aren't sure what you bought. Did you instruct your solicitor to advise you on the legal pack before you exchanged at auction or just to deal with the completion after? 

FreeBear

Noah_OA said: Furthermore, on the auction listing, they have stated there is planning for two detached houses however, the area is conservation land so isnt that misinformation and extremely misleading to who would want to buy it anyways?

Just because a plot of land is within a conservation area, that doesn't prevent planning permission being granted.

There is (was) a sizable plot in my town inside a CA that had numerous applications made for it. Eventually, the developers came up with a set of plans that the planning dept approved (all be it, grudgingly I suspect). Once planning has been granted, there isn't much anyone can do to stop the development from going ahead short of buying the plot and sitting on it.