Boundary issue - vendors backtracking - advice please!

ExEstateAgent

So, why didn't the vendors sort this out at the time (when they got home from work!). 

Sounds like a dispute - although it's a very minor difference and the strip of land's no practical use to either house it might mean you have a difficult person to contend with.

Why can't the vendor sort this out and move that kerb border to reflect the original boundary? 

ryanm8655

ExEstateAgent said:

So, why didn't the vendors sort this out at the time (when they got home from work!). 

Sounds like a dispute - although it's a very minor difference and the strip of land's no practical use to either house it might mean you have a difficult person to contend with.

Why can't the vendor sort this out and move that kerb border to reflect the original boundary? 

I think the issue is the person that did it is dead and the new neighbours moved in 5 years ago. 

They did agree to just changing it on the land registry but have now backtracked, presumably because they don’t want to spend the money or because it’ll take too long. And are now denying it was ever an issue in the first place.

sheramber

Tell them to update land registry or contact their neighbour to reinstate the correct boundary. 

ryanm8655

A bit of an update…

My lender has refused to lend unless they change the boundary on land registry to reflect the change.

Any ideas on how long this will take? I’m hearing 6 months plus?

EssexHebridean

That relies on the sellers being willing to make the change. If they are, then the time consuming (and costly) bit may well be getting an acceptable plan in place. Once the application is actually made, they can make an immediate request to expedite it on the basis that a sale of the property is underway, and it can then be remarkably quick after that. 

I suspect it is more likely that they will pull out of the sale to you, then re-market, and the TA6 supplied to a future buyer will be missing any mention of the boundary change! 

ryanm8655

EssexHebridean said:

That relies on the sellers being willing to make the change. If they are, then the time consuming (and costly) bit may well be getting an acceptable plan in place. Once the application is actually made, they can make an immediate request to expedite it on the basis that a sale of the property is underway, and it can then be remarkably quick after that. 

I suspect it is more likely that they will pull out of the sale to you, then re-market, and the TA6 supplied to a future buyer will be missing any mention of the boundary change! 

That’s helpful - thanks!

I am likely to pull out myself tbh. My offer was accepted 5 months ago and they agreed to sort the boundary early on.

Also what I’d do in the circumstances, although they’d have to get a new solicitor and market with a different agent to avoid it being an issue, as I understand it.

Land_Registry

If I have understood correctly next door took the bit of land to add to their driveway and removed the hedge that was a possible marker as to where the boundary originally was. 
If so then it's unlikely to be the seller, the owner who 'lost the land', who needs to resolve this as we won't update the register simply based on the owner sending us a plan to say 'this is how it now is' for example
Hence the lender was always going to say No having read the particulars of sale details provided
The solution would normally lie with the neighbour to apply to register the land as their own - adverse possession to register their claim to now owning that land. You say they have only been there 5 years and the neighbour who claimed the land is deceased. If that's the case, and they didn't get a statement of truth/stat dec from the previous and now deceased owner then any application now will fail as they don't have enough years to fulfil the legal/registration requirements re the claim 
The alternative is for the seller to transfer that bit of land to the neighbour by way of a transfer of part. If that's done then the request to expedite process can come into play as suggested but that simply gets the case to the processing start line - how long the race then is all depends on the conveyancers/parties involved getting their application and transfer right
I suspect, but do rely on your conveyancer here, that the only option here is to complete a transfer of the land.
If they do pull out of the sale and amend the particulars of sale that may not resolve matters unless the new buyer/conveyancer/lender don't query the registered title information being in conflict with the reality on the ground - if this was only highlighted by the seller's own admission then there's a possibility it won't be an issue for another buyer/lender if they remove mention as suggested. 

WIAWSNB

ryanm8655 said:

The following picture might make things clearer. The red line is roughly what the vendor disclosed as the boundary and indicated that the hedge line previously followed (this is also consistent with land registry).

The houses are at an angle so the boundary isn't parallel, where as every other boundary edge on the street is parallel to the opposite boundary. It's obvious a corner has been cut off and this is also obvious from recent planning documents where the boundary is different to that on land registry.

Do I care about the land itself? No, I wouldn't have noticed if they didn't disclose it but they did. It's just whether it's an issue for my lender and causes headaches when I sell down the line.

'Your' hoosie is on the right?
That's a semi or terraced?
Any chance of an anonymised pic of the deeds map? (ideally for both)
And that service cover - whose is that?

ryanm8655

I’ve now officially pulled out and had an offer accepted on another property. Lost out on some legal fees and a lot of time but the new property is considerable nicer, better located for my needs and needs a lot less work to make it nice going forward.

Everything happens for a reason I guess.

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice.