Land at rear of property to be used as private garden not included in sale

Sophiej27

Section62 said:

Sophiej27 said:

Section62 said:

Sophiej27 said:

SarahB16 said:

Sophiej27 said:

SarahB16 said:

Sophiej27 said:

Yes, they are keeping the land to the rear however as per the title it can only be used in conjunction with the property I am buying.

In due course this separate piece of land will be on a different title to yours.  Any chance you could share a pic of this so we can see the layout.  My only worry if I were you is that it could be developed on but I think the vendor is more worried that you may wish to extend your house so is stopping you as they will continue to own that land. 

The properties currently have seperate titles however the title number for the land is seperate. There would be no way to extend the property due to a unadopted road and the covenant only allows for a garage to be built.
The land is also more behind the house next door but is named land to the rear of (my property), mentions my property in the covenant and contains the title number for my property.

Who is the beneficiary (that may not be the correct word as I'm not a solicitor) of the covenant and who could remove it if requested?  Do you have any more details re that covenant that you could share?  

I'm not sure why a property couldn't be extended due to an unadopted road unless you mean there is physically no room to extend due to the unadopted road being there?  

The rear of the property currently touches the unadopted road. There is no public right of way to the road according to searches and my boundary includes a section of this road. 

...

The question is whether the vendor would need to use the unadopted road to access the piece of land they are keeping?

As current owner of the property it sounds like they can use the unadopted road, but if they sell up then either the retained land already has some kind of right of access, or the vendor is planning on granting a RoW to the retained land.

The access is via the unadopted road however it would not infer with my section of the property. The additional land is behind the end terrace house not my property. The corners meet but that would be all.

What I'm thinking is if you own part of the unadopted road you are quite likely to have some amount of responsibility for maintaining it - if the vendor is using the unadopted road for access to the retained land then they should be paying a share as well.... but if the vendor is sneaky they could leave that share of the responsibility to you.

If something like that is a possibility then the answers from your solicitor you've posted would leave me with more questions to ask.

(for context, unadopted roads can be a total nightmare, especially in rural areas where they can be used by farm traffic and/or larger vehicles)

Luckily the unadopted road is only behind 9 terraced house with additional land owned by all the properties at the other side. It’s a dead end so no large vehicles luckliy

penners324

I'd walk away

bobster2

penners324 said:

I'd walk away

Agree. Vendor is up to something. Whatever purpose they have for wanting to keep this land - it's going to have a negative impact on you.

SarahB16

bobster2 said:

penners324 said:

I'd walk away

Agree. Vendor is up to something. Whatever purpose they have for wanting to keep this land - it's going to have a negative impact on you.

Agree, I'd walk away too. 

Dustyevsky

There is always somebody who is not in possession of all the facts who encourages others to 'walk away.'

At present the OP is not in possession of enough information either, but it's premature to suggest the vendor is doing something nefarious.

For example, when we sold our last property, the lower third of the garden was retained because we had nowhere to store all the equipment and stock our business needed. When we purchased again, the land was cleared and sold to 4 houses behind it, all of which had tiny gardens in relation to their value. It was not, and never could be, a building site or a place where large vehicles could gain access.

OP, you know the site. Together with your solicitor, you should be able to judge its potential uses, whether it could be built on etc, and whether potential uses might concern you. For example, I would not be happy if a piece of land behind a terrace I lived in became a builder's yard, or a scaffolder's storage facility. Also, by studying others' title documents, find out who has responsibility for repairing the access lane.

Only when you have considered the potential for non-residential use, should you make a decision whether to 'walk away,' or even run!

sheramber

The owners of the seperate title/ land that mentions my property is a farm which had the covenant in place since 1970s (property was built pre 1920s)

Is that your vendor or does your vendor not own this piece of land?