Newly Bought House - Garden "Stolen"

thundyuk

Hi there,

I've just bought a semi detached house and I feel that I've been scammed - hoping for some advice or ideas.

Basically, I bought a semi-detached house on the end of a cul-de-sac which was the second to last house on the street, with the last house being a detached. The seller owned both the detached and semi-detached properties, so the second to last and last houses. The gardens were adjoined with a fence separating them (as are all the other houses) - a typical in-line series of gardens.

When I viewed it, there was a fence as you'd imagine between the gardens, and so I put the offer in and bought it. However, once the sale was finalised the seller than altered the fence so that they retained their whole garden, and took 75% of what I thought was my garden.

I obviously objected immediately, but it turns out that the deeds indeed show that the section of what I thought was mine belong to the detached house (and it turns out, this is because they transferred it from the properly I bought to their property LONG before the house was for sale).

So, legally, the land does belong to the detached property and the fence when I viewed it was merely in the middle of "their" garden and has since been moved.

What do I do? I feel like legally they own the garden I thought was mine, but surely this is some kind of misrepresentation or baiting & switching for a better term? 

Is my solicitor at fault for not highlighting the discrepancy or am I at fault for not reading the dimensions on the estate agent ad properly? 

Is there some kind of law protecting me here?

Appreciate any help.
Thanks

peter3hg

The solicitor should have asked you to confirm that the boundaries on the title plan correspond to what you think you are buying. Did they not do that?
They won't visit the property so are unlikely to identify the discrepancy themselves.

Gavin83

The solicitor would have shown you a copy of the land registry entry and asked you to confirm the boundary was correct. How did you deal with this?

Although it’s your solicitors job to highlight issues in the paperwork they have no idea about the actual property itself, they won’t have been there. From their perspective there’s nothing wrong with it.

ThisIsWeird

Your conveyancing solicitor would have asked you to check the provided deeds map, usually outlined in red, and compare it with the property you were buying - did you get the letter with this?
What does the deeds map show? 
What did the property details say about a garden? Was it sold via an estate agent?
If the map shows next to no garden, I wonder why your solicitor didn't notice this - or you.

thundyuk

Honestly, I don't know, I thought I'd seen and done everything properly.

housebuyer143

thundyuk said:

Honestly, I don't know, I thought I'd seen and done everything properly.

Check your emails. If your solicitor didn't send you the title to check and confirm you might have case, but honestly this seems an unlikely omission. 
If you confirmed it was correct then nothing you can do. Sly of the seller but nothing you can do  

ProDave

Yes it does sound as if the vendor, when he owned both, could put the fence anywhere he wanted to.  Now he has sold as long as he has put the fence where the land registry says the boundary is, he has done nothing "wrong"

Check VERY carefully that the fence is where the LR boundary says.

Could you post a suitably anonymised site layout plan to illustrate where the fence was and where it is now?

thundyuk

So, it's not perfect and I just chose a bit of a random street (ignore the partial place shown where there's just a shed, it doesn't really add up I'm not the best with editing).

Imagine the X is my place, and to the left is 47 which is the last house on the street  (51 on right is my other neighbour) and I am at 49 but please understand the numbers are not real, they're just from this map.

What I thought it was, is the garden as shown.




When I moved in, the red line shows where the new fence was placed so the seller / neighbour at what is 47 here for a working example now has what's shown in image three.

BlueVeranda

Do you happen to still have the estate agency ad for the house and if so what does it say about the garden? I do not think you would have a case against the EA as they would be relying on the seller to provide correct information and also would not have had sight of the deeds, but am wondering if the garden was mentioned at all or left for viewers to assume where the boundary was.

Hoenir

thundyuk said:

I obviously objected immediately, but it turns out that the deeds indeed show that the section of what I thought was mine belong to the detached house (and it turns out, this is because they transferred it from the properly I bought to their property LONG before the house was for sale).

Suggests that there was nothing underhand on the part of the vendor. More than likely your oversight in not checking the title plan properly. As has been said earlier. Your solicitor , with no physical sight of the property themselves, will have asked you to confirm same. A standard basic step at the outset of the purchase transaction. 

user1977

thundyuk said:

Is my solicitor at fault for not highlighting the discrepancy or am I at fault for not reading the dimensions on the estate agent ad properly? 

Are you saying the dimensions in the ad were correct? If so then I can't see you've got any case at all.

How would your solicitor know about any "discrepancy" to highlight if they had never seen the fences in the positions you saw, and didn't know that you had misunderstood the dimensions? What had your solicitor told you about the title?