Buying house - is this a big issue?

Annie1612

We are nearing the end of our house purchase but there is an outstanding issue which I thought I would just ask some opinions on as I don’t know what to make of it really.

The owner’s power of attorney are dealing with the sale. They state that a strip of land was purchased from the neighbours to widen the driveway in 1975 but they do not know the date. We want to build an extension on the driveway. Without the exact date, the solicitors say they cannot find the relevant information on the register.

They do say they might not be any documentation relating to the sale but say we can ask the vendor for indemnity insurance. I’m not sure how much use this would be if we had a problem in future. Is this going to cause us problems potentially if we build a small side extension on that land?

user1977

Your solicitor should be able to give you advice about what the indemnity insurance would cover, so I would be asking them whether it would allow you to develop the strip in the future.

What it ought to cover is the cost of any future dispute about your ownership, which in practice may mean the insurers buying the land from the neighbours (again!).

The alternative way to go is for your vendors to start the conversation now with the neighbours to sort it out (I presume the solicitors have already checked there's no clues on their title?), but doing that would preclude insurance as a solution (the insurers don't want anybody to "rock the boat" by pointing out the problem).

Annie1612

I don’t know if our conveyancers have checked next doors title but I will ask if they don’t get any further info - thank you!

youth_leader

You can download their title yourself, it is £3 and downloadable immediately.

Annie1612

youth_leader said:

You can download their title yourself, it is £3 and downloadable immediately.

Thanks - useful info. I will look this up later on.

ThisIsWeird

Hi Annie.
From your presumed viewings, has this strip been obviously incorporated into your vendor's plot? Fence or border markings been moved? Ie, is there more here than just the PoA's 'claim' that they have bought this land?!
It's hard to know what an indemnity policy would cover in a case like this! For instance, if it's to protect you from the 'loss' of this land, and it turns out after purchase that there's no evidence that it IS your land, and the neighb denies ever selling it, then what?! The policy is supposed to cover you for the cost of (re)gaining this land?! What do you reckon the neighbour will £equire to 'sell' it to you? The neighbour could simply refuse to sell, or pull a crazy figure out of the air - what will the policy do then?
Also, from my understanding of indemnity policies, if the PoA cove makes enquiries now on your behalf, and the neighb says, "Nope - it's still my land", then any potential indemnity policy will be invalidated.
What to do? I think surely ask the PoA/seller's conveyancer to clarify the situation now, and get the neighbour to confirm ownership has been transferred, in some legal enforceable way.

user1977

ThisIsWeird said:

The neighbour could simply refuse to sell, or pull a crazy figure out of the air - what will the policy do then?

It will compensate you for the loss in value of your (remaining) property. That's why policies usually have an insured value equal to the price you're paying - on the assumption that the worst case scenario is having a useless property (though in practice it isn't usually as bad as that).

Annie1612

“From your presumed viewings, has this strip been obviously incorporated into your vendor's plot? Fence or border markings been moved?”

Yes, you wouldn’t notice anything other than a normal block paved driveway and it looks the same as the rest of the street with a fence marking new boundary. I am not sure what the neighbours could add to this other than also consulting their deeds as they bought the house a year ago and the supposed sale was 40 years ago. 

grumpy_codger

youth_leader said:

You can download their title yourself, it is £3 and downloadable immediately.

Where is it £3? The last time I checked it was £7.

ChirpyChicken

grumpy_codger said:

youth_leader said:

You can download their title yourself, it is £3 and downloadable immediately.

Where is it £3? The last time I checked it was £7.

That's right. It was £3. Now £7

Section62

Annie1612 said:

...

They do say they might not be any documentation relating to the sale but say we can ask the vendor for indemnity insurance. I’m not sure how much use this would be if we had a problem in future. Is this going to cause us problems potentially if we build a small side extension on that land?

As well as the ownership issue, you need to make sure the then neighbour didn't attach a covenant to the land preventing building on it.  I would if I were selling a strip of land to a neighbour for a driveway.

You'll also need to check the situation with planning.