Newly Bought House - Garden "Stolen"

custardly

Honestly this is bizarre and entirely on you. You bought something without bothering to look at what you were buying! 

steve866

I would have expected the agent to make the garden situation clear during viewings, partly morally (ha, ha) and secondly to prevent wasting time with it being discovered further down the buying process. I can understand why the OP is annoyed. I don’t remember my solicitor asking me to check title plans on either or my last purchases, though I chose to myself. 

ThisIsWeird

Based on an actual case, I understand that EAs are legally obliged to inform buyers of any issues 'that could materially affect the property's value'. 
Of course, if they didn't know the garden wasn't part of it, then they can claim ignorance. But, if it can be shown that they did know, but didn't mention it, then... quite possibly.
But unlikely.

MultiFuelBurner

This is a classic case of "Buyer Beware!!" 

I find it disgraceful that some members here are finding this humourous as for us with our first purchases we may well have missed something like this as well without good guidance.

Just another reason to download your own land registry docs when interested in a property and perform local authority planning searches yourself.

Ksw3

I could see the EA giving the impression it was included. We were told our house has a driveway (it doesn't as no dropped kerb) and parking at the rear of the house (on land we don't even own!). Thankfully, I'd read alot on these forums so knew what to look for. 

It's perfectly reasonable to assume that people whose job it is to get things right will, fortunately I grew up cynical and question everything. It's exhausting but occasionally it has its rewards. 

What does the property information form say?

Gavin83

Ksw3 said:

I could see the EA giving the impression it was included. We were told our house has a driveway (it doesn't as no dropped kerb) and parking at the rear of the house (on land we don't even own!). Thankfully, I'd read alot on these forums so knew what to look for. 

It's perfectly reasonable to assume that people whose job it is to get things right will, fortunately I grew up cynical and question everything. It's exhausting but occasionally it has its rewards. 

What does the property information form say?

I viewed a house which was advertised as having dedicated parking. Turns out this was actually a parking bay further down the street that you weren’t actually allowed to park in. When I questioned this with the vendor (they did the viewing) she said she’d been parking there for years with no issues!

In this case I suspect on the balance of probabilities the EA didn’t know and hasn’t done anything wrong. I think it’s far more likely that the vendor told them it was included or the most likely scenario of all, it just didn’t come up. Anyone viewing a house with a fenced off garden would assume it was included and although I’ve never sold a house I expect it’s question most EAs wouldn’t bother asking.

Dustyevsky

I've recounted the tale of the missing acre before, but it stands a short reprise.

Viewing a property advertised with 3 acres, I knew on inspection the land I was shown didn't extend beyond two, even including half the river bed. When I queried where the third acre was, the agent replied, “Mr Dusty, you and I may not be able to see that third acre, but Mr Smith (vendor) can, and I'm afraid he's the one paying my fees!”

EssexHebridean

The provision of the title documents by the solicitor, along with the comment that these should be carefully checked to ensure all is as they think it should be should form a standard part of the conveyancing process - however, the question is whether in fact that was what happened.

OP - it's already been suggested to you that you should go back over the emails from your solicitor and confirm that the documents were provided to you as they should have been - I'd say that is very much your first step. If they were, then the onus is on you, but if they were not, then you "may" have a claim against the solicitor. 

If the EA pictures in the original listing included the whole garden, and no mention was made either in the listing, or when you viewed, that actually, the garden was only half the size, then you may also have an argument that the EA was acting in a way that was intentionally misleading - but only if you can prove that they were aware of the situation, and that might be challenging.

user1977

EssexHebridean said:

If the EA pictures in the original listing included the whole garden, and no mention was made either in the listing, or when you viewed, that actually, the garden was only half the size, then you may also have an argument that the EA was acting in a way that was intentionally misleading - but only if you can prove that they were aware of the situation, and that might be challenging.

Particularly as the OP says "am I at fault for not reading the dimensions on the estate agent ad properly? ", which (as I said in my earlier reply) suggests the EA details were accurate and the OP just overlooked them.

thundyuk

ThisIsWeird said:

Thundy, it would help us to help you if you gave clear answers to Qs asked.

1) Was this sold via an estate agent? If so, what do the sales 'particulars' say?

2) When you were (presumably) shown around, what were you told? Did you wander freely into this garden along with the rep, as if the garden did belong to the house you were considering buying? What was said? Anything? "Ooh, this would make a nice place for a garden room?"

3) Look through all the letters and docs your conveyancing solicitor sent you. You should have a letter which fronts a copy of the deeds, which should in turn include the deeds map. Your conveyancer's covering letter should ask you to go through this, and also ask you to confirm that the plot outlined in red is an accurate representation of what you saw - will see - on the ground. Tell us what that map shows. Why can't you include this map on here? Just import the pic into any vague editing software - even MS Paint will do this - and cover any IDing names.

4) Did you have any communication with the seller? Bump into him? A chat over the fence?

5) Was ANYTHING said to you by ANYONE to suggest that this garden came with the house?

And,

6) Have you spoken to your conveyancing solicitor yet?

Hi - apologies for my lack of accurate replies it's been a pretty stressful few days.

There's a good news outcome but first let me answer your questions

1> Yes, and the particulars are correct - the dimensions are the smaller dimensions, I just didn't notice the EA say that they gave me all the correct information.
2> We looked (wife and myself) but it was just a cursory glance as it's a huge lawn area with nothing to see, I don't recall anything of note.
3> The copy of the deeds does the correct plot, again, I just missed it.
4> Not at the time, but I have now (read on).
5> Not that I can recall.
6> I have, and as far as they are concerned everything was above board. I can't disagree, I really just did not do my due diligence. Buyer beware indeed!



NOW THE GOOD NEWS (best outcome given my mistakes)

I mentioned above that I'd not spoken to the vendor (now, neighbour) at any point, but in the last day I've managed to speak to him. It turns out he's been in hospital during the whole process (older chap, very sharp witted but had some ill health recently so he's been in and out of hospital).

Anyway, really nice bloke and I was talking to him about what happened and he was completely unaware there was an issue. He's explicitly told the EA to ensure that anyone interested should be made aware that the boundary was changed pending the fence being re-aligned - he even showed me emails to that effect. To be fair, the EA did do this as the particulars and map on the property were accurate, I've just missed it.

The fence was meant to have been moved earlier, but with him being in hospital he couldn't do it himself, and there was some mix up getting it done earlier. He'd sorted it out, but after the sale.

Now I'm honestly bowled over here as he's now he's offered to do the following:

1> Keep the fence as it is but add a gate and allow my family to use the land as a shared area (which he's adding some garden furniture to for everyone to use). 
2> Add a fence back at the old boundary with a gate - effectively dividing his land up to make it feel more a communal area.
3> Agreed to not add anything "ugly" such as sheds etc to the area unless we're both happy for it to go in.
4> In writing, has agreed not to pursue planning permission on the land without giving us at least 18 months' notice so if we wanted to sell our property without the potential devaluing effects of having new houses added to the land we could do so.
5> The above will be done via a solicitor so it's binding, and he's paying the fees too!

All I can say is I'm overwhelmed by the generosity of understanding here. 

I'll be more careful next time for certain, and advise anyone else to be more careful than I was because I can't imagine most people will be so lucky.