Advise on buying a house with non-registered land and potential blocking of garage?

ClonkersKM

Hello,

I am now 4 months down the line of buying a property and 10 months since receiving an offer on selling my current house. We are just waiting on the last section of the purchase which is the local searches. However, since I received the land registry forms on the 22nd May I have since queried a small section of land in front of the detached garage. below for reference.



The black outline will be owned by me however the red section is non-registered land. I have since replied to my solicitors and asked them about the section highlighted in Blue in front of the garage stating that if this land is non-registered then does this mean that someone can block the entrance to the garage?

My solicitors requested the sellers to make an adverse possessory title application with HMLR for the purple section however have now stated that their "head of firm is in agreement with the sellers solicitor that any application for adverse possession will fail on the basis that the seller can't claim exclusive access".

The way these houses have been built is that there are four houses that share an access way/driveway to sections of land which should be used as parking bays (as outlined in my drawings) and people also keep their bins in these sections, which is how I know that it has been laid out as the bins were numbered. As you can see my house is the only one with a garage and a section of land in front of the garage which is off the shared driveway which is my reason for questioning why this blue section of land would not be in the ownership of the seller.

I am now questioning wether to go ahead with the purchase as I have lived with nightmare neighbours before and I dont want to risk anyone blocking the entrance to my garage which I would like to use to store my car and use on a daily basis. Any advise on how/if I should move forward would be appreciated?

Annoyingly my solicitors have been awful with communication and it has taken them since I questioned it in May to come back to me now with this information so we are now at the very end stages of the purchase. The sale of my house is waiting on the purchase of this house, my mortgage offer only has one month left and my estate agent fees are due to be paid at the end of next month. 

ClonkersKM

Sorry just to add the Seller has owned this house for the past 17 years however has rented the property for a number of years (im not sure on how many years)

FlorayG

Do you know who owns the non-registered land? Just because it's not registered doesn't mean nobody owns it

ClonkersKM

Land registry don't have any record of who owns it according to my solicitors.

BarelySentientAI

ClonkersKM said:

Land registry don't have any record of who owns it according to my solicitors.

Which means it is unregistered - you already knew that.

But who owns it?

Section62

ClonkersKM said:

....
The black outline will be owned by me however the red section is non-registered land. I have since replied to my solicitors and asked them about the section highlighted in Blue in front of the garage stating that if this land is non-registered then does this mean that someone can block the entrance to the garage?
...

In addition to the issue with the blue area, does the property have the right to cross the rest of the red area (with a vehicle) to access the road?

Is this a local authority development?

ClonkersKM

So the solicitors have updated me today with the original plot layouts. The yellow section is a shared access way between the four houses.

Again she couldn't tell me who owns the land. Who would I ask if Land Registry don't know??
 

ClonkersKM

The area was built between 1983 and 1990 so it's not a new build 

ClonkersKM

Section62 said:

ClonkersKM said:

....
The black outline will be owned by me however the red section is non-registered land. I have since replied to my solicitors and asked them about the section highlighted in Blue in front of the garage stating that if this land is non-registered then does this mean that someone can block the entrance to the garage?
...

In addition to the issue with the blue area, does the property have the right to cross the rest of the red area (with a vehicle) to access the road?

Is this a local authority development?

How would I find this out?

user1977

Who was the original developer? The deeds should give you major clues about this.

ClonkersKM

user1977 said:

Who was the original developer? The deeds should give you major clues about this.

I don't have the deeds, surely I wouldnt get them until after I have purchased? All I have is the Fixtures & fittings, TA6 Law society property info (which has the sellers info), Land registry title plan, contract/standard conditions of sale, TR1 and mortgage deeds/consent forms.