Portion of potential garden not showing on OS map

[Palomb]

The owners of the house we are buying bought a patch of their neighbours garden some years ago as an extension to their own garden. We are buying the house to include this extra land. It is currently well fenced and obviously part of 'our' garden although the garden is now and irregular shape.

We have just had the f&f list from the sols and it mentions then then states 'see attached deeds' but no deeds have been attached, only a poor copy of the land registry from the 70's which show the garden as it was pre extension. I have looked on the historic OS maps and none of them show this land as our would be property. It is still shown as part of he original garden.

What do I need to have in my hand to make sure I am not going to end up embroiled in a boundary dispute some time in the future?

[wowfudge]

I would think that your solicitor has the other documents if the vendor has sent them as they will need to check them and raise any queries. Perhaps you have accidentally not been sent everything by your solicitor.

You can get an instant download of the title plan and title register from the gov.uk Land Registry website. Each document costs £3. Do a map search and pinpoint the area of the garden and see what comes up.

[PipnPosy]

We bought a small patch of land from the local authority to increase the size of our garden. That patch was included on a separate title deed (not added to the original one). Didn't cause any problems when we sold our house as we had gone through the correct channels and had all the relevant documentation. Hopefully your vendor has done the same, but definitely something for your solicitor to check up on.

[Palomb]

Do you think the solicitors will do a land registry search? My DH has spoken to the vendor and she has provided all the documentation so it seems the solicitor chose not to pass them on. The solicitors are worrying me slightly.. They have, on two occasions, sent us someone else's documents. I hope they haven't got the original deeds or goodness knows where they would end up.

[wowfudge]

For peace of mind why not do it yourselves? You don't have to tell your solicitors you have done and they won't know. Otherwise wait until tomorrow and call them and ask what they expect you to do with the document you have received as there is no information relating to the additional land. If you have misgivings about their competence you can use their complaints procedure. You can also change solicitors, although this may delay the deal and will almost certainly cost you more.

[Palomb]

I work in housing and I know we are able to access title deeds at work so I'll speak to my manager and see if that's something I can do from there. If not I'll pay for it myself I think just for peace of mind as you say. I'm sure the solicitors will be be fine! I hope they will anyway. I don't want to delay things any more.
It's such a long process isn't it!

[wowfudge]

Obviously it's your call, but in your shoes I'd just do it myself over the internet now. But then I am impatient! We did quite a bit of our own research on our purchase and got various documents from the Land Registry as well as downloading things for various reasons I won't go into here.

[Palomb]

Ok so I paid the £3 and had a look and it doesn't show on there either. I'm concerned now :(

[wowfudge]

Palomb - the title register/plan you downloaded, was it for the house you are buying? In which case either do a map search to pinpoint the area of land or get the title docs for the next door neighbour's house and see if it shows their garden minus the bit in question.

Have you read the title register for the house you are buying? Is there any reference to a conveyance or a lease or something else with the neighbours?

I suggest you speak to your solicitor about it in the morning.

[Palomb]

I tried looking at the title of the property the garden was purchased from but I can't work out the numbers as all the houses have names and they doesn't return any findings.

How do you do a map search?

[wowfudge]

Sorry - I should have said, they may not have been sold a defined section of land which was then registered. There are different ways of acquiring an interest in land and it's also possible it hasn't been registered for some reason.

[Palomb]

We are going to speak to the solicitors in the morning. I love the house but need to know and have absolute proof that what i think I'm buying is actually going to belong to me!

Will post when I know :) thank you

[wowfudge]

Map search - choose the map search option under where you would have put the details of the house you're buying. Just click on the words. Then put the house name, road and postcode and it will bring up a map you can zoom in on. You can change the view so you can recognise things more easily. Then you can zoom in and find all the properties within 5, 10 or 20 metres. This should then produce a list of all the registered properties within your chosen radius. Google Streetview can be really useful to help you recognise things and find the name of the correct next door property.