Newly Bought House - Garden "Stolen"

Emily_Joy

I doubt that any part of the agreement above would be legally enforceable. Furthermore, it sounds like your neighbour is not around for long. I don't know whether there is a way to make whoever is to inherit the property from him to adhere to the agreement. 

housebuyer143

He sounds nice, but be aware if he contacted you to say he was seeking planning permission you would be required to notify a buyer, and the likelihood of someone wishing to buy it does reduce. If you then decide to object to the plans relations will probably go sour. 

Not sure I am one for shared garden space but depends what you want to do with the land. 
He's.a smart guy - knows he needs to live next to you and wants to smooth things over. 

ThisIsWeird

What an outcome!

Really - you are very, very lucky.

Yes, this isn't the perfect outcome - that would obviously be that the land somehow was yours, but that just wasn't on the cards! - but to have such an understanding neighbour is worth its weight in gold.

As others have said, tho', things can easily change, and you mustn't feel too let down if they do - this is not your land.

Also, even tho' he very thoughtfully suggested he would give you looong notice of any plans to develop that land, you would then be aware of these plans, and are legally bound to declare during a sale "anything that could materially affect the value of your property".

It's also a wee bit concerning that he is prepared to be sooo considerate to you, but could well stitch up the next owner by not giving advance warning of him developing that land. That is weird?

Anyhoo, for what you say, no-one else has done wrong, so let this be a salutary warning in your house-moving life.

RHemmings

This thread has made me look VERY CAREFULLY at the title plan for my purchase, even though I have before. 

There are so many 'traps for young players' in the house purchase process. The number of things to be aware of and be careful of is huge. 

Herzlos

The risk with the agreement is that it'd only be binding on him, and if he moves at some point you have no right to the space.

Another option would be for you to offer to buy back the land from him and flip the agreement; that way if he moves out you aren't deprived of the land.

(I can sympathise, I don't imagine anyone checks that the fences are in the correct place because if it was wrong one of the neighbours would have complained. A lot of people struggle to visualise measurements so even if the real dimensions were written down you might not notice the discrepancy unless the figures were hugely out).

Jonboy_1984

This is one of the tales that makes me wonder how any of the conveyancing sheds ever got a foothold in the market. For our first purchase our local solicitor insisted on an in person meeting and went through all of this in detail before exchange(they still missed one important detail that made life awkward later but it was still a very useful meeting). 

One our second purchase the solicitor asked specific questions to make sure we had checked it thoroughly and they had interp9it correctly for their enquiries. 

aliby21

OP I hope you are offering to mow that bit of garden. In fact I hope you are offering to mow the whole of your neighbours garden!

EssexHebridean

RHemmings said:

This thread has made me look VERY CAREFULLY at the title plan for my purchase, even though I have before. 

There are so many 'traps for young players' in the house purchase process. The number of things to be aware of and be careful of is huge. 

And this is why this place is great - that a thread like this has alerted you to something that you may otherwise not have thought of!

I'm so pleased that the OP has a good (for them) outcome for the near future at least - that is good news. As suggested, best to regard that space as nice to have for now, but, yes, something that could change.

The biggest lesson which should be learned from this is to always check dimensions to ensure they are as you expect, and when your solicitor sends you some information saying "check this" - don't just smile and nod, actually check it! 

fewcloudy

Herzlos said:

...Another option would be for you to offer to buy back the land from him and flip the agreement; that way if he moves out you aren't deprived of the land....

This was my immediate thought upon reading the update.  It doesn't sound like he needs/wants it, and may be amenable to a sale, perhaps in the near future?

I would certainly be seeking to achieve that, although I agree the outcome is already very good compared to what it could've been.

And although he is being somewhat charitable and neighbourly about things, there is no telling what the next owners of his property might be like. Could be a young family, with very different ideas/uses in mind for their newly purchased house with its extra big back garden!

user1977

thundyuk said:

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?

5> The above will be done via a solicitor so it's binding

"Binding" in what sense? Binding on all future owners of your and his properties? So covenants / easements / whatever put into both titles? With the agreement of any mortgage lenders? He's paying your legal fees and your lender's costs (if appropriate)?