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specialhat
Posts: 182 Forumite
I am/was nearly at the point of exchanging contracts on the sale of my leasehold flat.
However last week my buyer's solicitor threw a spanner in the works. A deed of variation was drawn up for the four flats in the building in 2016. The plans were accepted by my lender, the freeholder and the Land Registry. However the solicitor says there has been an error and the colour was missed off the plans (to denote access etc - the main problem is the brown). She is mistaken - the colour is there, but it is very faint, probably due to repeated scanning during the countersigning process.
We have asked the solicitor who handled the DoV for a copy and theirs is also faint. We are now waiting for a hard copy but I am not feeling hopeful.
What is most galling is that I have a copy of the version I was sent to sign, and this clearly shows the colour (the plans were hand drawn by an architect and coloured with coloured pencil). I was never sent a final, complete version. My solicitor says she has sent a copy of this clear, unsigned version to the LR but I can't imagine they will accept it (although it is identical, just better quality and unsigned).
My solicitor is being very vague/unhelpful so far about what can happen next. If the Land Registry approved it as recently as 2016, surely the plan is OK?
I want to contact the solicitor who originally submitted the plans - I'd imagine they were responsible for this?
Does anyone have any advice, please? Might I have to do a deed of rectification? Can I do this just for my flat or will it have to be all four flats (we do all have different access).
However last week my buyer's solicitor threw a spanner in the works. A deed of variation was drawn up for the four flats in the building in 2016. The plans were accepted by my lender, the freeholder and the Land Registry. However the solicitor says there has been an error and the colour was missed off the plans (to denote access etc - the main problem is the brown). She is mistaken - the colour is there, but it is very faint, probably due to repeated scanning during the countersigning process.
We have asked the solicitor who handled the DoV for a copy and theirs is also faint. We are now waiting for a hard copy but I am not feeling hopeful.
What is most galling is that I have a copy of the version I was sent to sign, and this clearly shows the colour (the plans were hand drawn by an architect and coloured with coloured pencil). I was never sent a final, complete version. My solicitor says she has sent a copy of this clear, unsigned version to the LR but I can't imagine they will accept it (although it is identical, just better quality and unsigned).
My solicitor is being very vague/unhelpful so far about what can happen next. If the Land Registry approved it as recently as 2016, surely the plan is OK?
I want to contact the solicitor who originally submitted the plans - I'd imagine they were responsible for this?
Does anyone have any advice, please? Might I have to do a deed of rectification? Can I do this just for my flat or will it have to be all four flats (we do all have different access).
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Comments
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I'd have thought a combination of the 'faint colour' + common sense would make it clear where the access is.
Many deeds and old Plans have faint outlines and generally are acceptable unless there is some critical factor that makes definitive definition of a boundary essential.0 -
Thank you. What's maddening is the brown is there just to denote I have access between the front gate to the front door, which is definitely common sense. I've made a jpg of the two plans right next to each other and no one could deny that part is shaded.
If it was so bad, surely the Land Registry would have rejected it?
NB The DoV was drawn up to alter the position of the parking spaces, add some hatching and to add a line of text about access to those. Nothing else on the plan changed.0 -
I also can't believe I could potentially lose this sale because of some coloured pencils.
Any other advice would be gratefully received please.0 -
You wouldn't. You'd lose it through the buyer choosing to walk away, nothing else.specialhat wrote: »I also can't believe I could potentially lose this sale because of some coloured pencils.
No sane buyer is going to walk away simply because a plan of car parking spaces is fairly obvious but not absolutely crystal-clear.
You have also had four years to notice that the plan is less-than-clear post-registration...0 -
You wouldn't. You'd lose it through the buyer choosing to walk away, nothing else.
No sane buyer is going to walk away simply because a plan of car parking spaces is fairly obvious but not absolutely crystal-clear.
You have also had four years to notice that the plan is less-than-clear post-registration...
Yeah, I never looked at the registered plan and assumed it looked like the one they sent me to sign. I've had two buyers before this (who dropped out for other reasons near exchange) and neither of them have raised it as an issue, and the upstairs flat sold without issues in 2017 with what I now know is a similarly faint plan.0 -
Update: I think we have got hold of a clearer plan, but the buyer's solicitor is insisting we register it with the land registry. Nothing has changed on the plan. My estate agent says he's never heard of this happening in 30 years.
Meanwhile the buyer has been talking about exchanging next week but his solicitor obviously has other ideas!0 -
Forget your EA's opinion. He's done his bit - found a buyer. This is between the solicitors.
The buyer has the final word on what his solicitor does and doesn't insist, and when exchange happens. The solicitor can recommend, but not insist. The clarified plan can be registered just as easily post-sale as pre-.0
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