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ELLG
Posts: 4 Newbie
I bought my house 34 years ago. It was a private sale and the house was a previous Council property. I bought it freehold. A few months after I moved in, I received a bill for £5.00 for an annual Ground rent on the last 4 feet of my back garden. I queried this and was told that when the houses were built in the 1950s there was a planned path at the back, but this was never built and all the land was added to the then Council properties. My solicitor should have noticed this at the time but didnt. However I told the Council that if I didnt want the land they would need to come and fence it off and then I would charge them to come on my land to get to it for maintenance. I was then told to forget it and they would sort it out. I cannot remember if I ever got anything in writing.
Now I come to sell my house and the Council never changed the boundaries 34 years ago as promised, and the buyers solicitor is insisting I pay for the search, registering the land and insurance (approx £200 in total).
Can I claim any of this back and if the Council still own this land can I counter charge them for the maintenance of this land? I have contacted the Council and they have no records of anything and all I am getting is" the land PROBABLY still belongs to the Councils!".
The payment they are asking for is not the issue here, it is the principle and the inconvenience it is all causing .
Now I come to sell my house and the Council never changed the boundaries 34 years ago as promised, and the buyers solicitor is insisting I pay for the search, registering the land and insurance (approx £200 in total).
Can I claim any of this back and if the Council still own this land can I counter charge them for the maintenance of this land? I have contacted the Council and they have no records of anything and all I am getting is" the land PROBABLY still belongs to the Councils!".
The payment they are asking for is not the issue here, it is the principle and the inconvenience it is all causing .
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Comments
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You had 34 years to sort this one out...
If it's not for the money but inconvenience, why do you even bother trying to claw back something from the council? If at all possible this is going to be a major hassle.0 -
I was looking for the legal angle of this situation, and I am only interested in positive feedback, not blame.0
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Being charged ground rent suggests you have a leasehold title to the bit at the back - is that right? If so then I'm not sure what the insurance your buyer is referring to is for - do you know? If you're the leaseholder then maintenance of the land is probably your responsibility. Not sure what you're hoping to claim back from whom. Assuming you're not doing your own conveyancing, what's your solicitor's advice?0
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I have never received a bill since the one off request 34 years ago. The deeds would have been with my mortgage provider.0
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I was looking for the legal angle of this situation, and I am only interested in positive feedback, not blame.
I think you need to find out a bit more about the situation, before people can offer advice.
For example..A few months after I moved in, I received a bill for £5.00 for an annual Ground rent on the last 4 feet of my back garden....
I was then told to forget it and they would sort it out.
Did the council tell you to forget about it because:
a) They had made a mistake - and no lease existed?
b) They had made a mistake - a lease existed, but you were not the leaseholder?
c) They had not made a mistake - a lease existed, you were the leaseholder - but they didn't want the hassle of collecting £5 per year?
The advice would be different, depending on whether it was a, b, c or something else.Now I come to sell my house and the Council never changed the boundaries 34 years ago as promised,
I think you're probably remembering incorrectly. It's very unlikely that the council promised to change the boundary. More likely a) or b) or c) above.Can I claim any of this back and if the Council still own this land can I counter charge them for the maintenance of this land?
No - absolutely no chance of any of this.0 -
it was c} above0
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Ok, so you've got a leasehold title and your buyer is buying that from you along with your freehold title. I can't really see the problem.0
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