Neighbours access rights and non disclosure by previous owner!

[Pitwoman]

Previous owner didn’t disclose a dispute and missing conveyance from our deeds! 😩😩
Bought a end of terrace house with a parking space. After a few renovations...removal of a shed to create a courtyard garden and new bathroom, neighbours came around saying he had ‘washing rights’ and we couldn’t park our car on our driveway. It turns out that their was a conveyance missing off our deeds that were attached to neighbours. We instructed solicitors to resolve and found that the conveyance has to go on our deeds. We then tried to address a resolution with them about us having parking and then using area for washing but he won’t be resasonable about it and keeps hanging a washing line across my driveway...he’s never used it as his house is filthy! We found out during that process that he had been having the same issue with the previous vendor. Our solicitor wrote to them asking them to agree our reasonable terms, (there access apparently can not stop our enjoyment of the land) and ended the letter by saying if you don’t reply we will assume your agreeable. 18mthd later we put up a For Sale sign as this has been so distressing in a day to day basis, and they write to the Edtate Agents saying we are in dispute and please pass this on to the potential vendors! As such no sale....not sure if it is linked but still. Even tried to part ex but property older than 1930’s. Can anyone help me here. I am reasonable and understand they have rights but also to take previous owner to court will cost £20,000 and it’s such a simple resolution. 😩

How do I add diagram or photos?

Ask them for your conveyancing file in full (legally it's yours) and find a new solicitor to quote to advise you, OP.

It wouldn't be on his deeds - the LR don't usually put it on the benefiting property, just the burdened one.

Interesting deed he has there, wonder if the ink is still wet

Remove the hook from the wall of your property.

Not RTFT but missing conveyance from the deeds sounds outdated to me. If your neighbours have an easement over your land then surely it should be registered on the Land Registry title certificate for your house and as such the Land Registry searches your conveyancing solicitor conducted ought to have revealed it anyway, regardless of whether the previous vendor disclosed it? Worth discussing with your conveyancing solicitor anyway I would say as there's something not quite right here to my mind (though I should add that this isn't my practice area, so it's entirely possible that I'm barking up the wrong tree here!)

Yes, take the hook down. He will have no right to screw a new hook in your house. Tell him he can dry clothes as much as he wants by laying them out on the concrete/grass, or even over your car. But there will be no washing line.

Yes!

Remove the hook, remove the hook, remove the hook!

Ha, a tenner says the deed would then miraculously have a written amendment with a diagram of where there is to be a hook...

Seriously though, you have to be careful about interfering with rights. Much better to take advice first. Who advised you to have it entered on your title without fighting it? That doesn't sound like great advice to me.

There's also the fact that the seller didn't disclose an ongoing dispute - that alone is an issue for him!

It wouldn’t be on your deeds it would be at the land registry, most likely on the charges register (negative covenants, restrictive easements). A conveyance means search so they wouldn’t search your deeds they would search registers to see what needs to apply to your deeds, sounds like your solicitor has been negligent so you can seek legal action against them

It wouldn't be on his deeds - the LR don't usually put it on the benefiting property, just the burdened one.

I am sure our deeds have something about us having access to next door's garden for the purpose of maintain our wall which abuts the border

To echo everyone else, there does sound like there’s a professional negligence claim against your original solicitor.

Sorry but your post doesn’t make complete sense to me, but with a missing conveyance it would be usual for your solicitor to get an indemnity policy.

Sounds like if you have added the right on to your deeds then he has the right to dry clothes. However, if the hook is yours you can remove it. However if it was purchased etc by him you need to return it undamaged. NB seek legal advice.

5plus - depends on the covenant. If it has mutual rights they might just quote it all.

But usually they don't put the benefits there because the LR doesn't want to be responsible for claiming that something is a "benefit", I believe!!

Who advised you to add the right to your deeds without questioning it?

Hi yoyo1234 it was another solicitor. Just because it wasn’t on ours it was in theirs and that it had to be added as it was on neighbours when they bought their house. Even though putting it on ours when we bought in good faith, it practically has caused this stress.
Today House purchasing company has offered us 85% of the sale price for a quick sale. Very tempted to let it go. Obviously I will disclose the dispute.

A 15% hit on value and another lot of SDLT when you buy again? That's a lot of money, OP. Why not take the advice first? Then you can go ahead and sell if you still can't face the neighbour.

beepthemeep you probably right re the ink! 🤔
I think I’ll see a solicitor. Thank you all for advice and support. Needed it today! 😔

It may be that it is unenforceable if it's not documented in your deeds.

It is entirely enforceable. It is also not the fault of OP's solicitor.

OP - look at my earlier post and speak to your solicitor about claiming compensation from the Land Registry. This should really have shown as a burden on your title, and the fact that it didn't is an error on the part of the Land Registry. Don't sell up at a loss unless you're sure you'll be able to claim it back. This as well about the loss of stamp duty and other costs as well. This may cost you a lot of money.

I don't understand how the right is binding as against you if it wasn't on the Land Registry title?

Me too! But it has been attached to property.

Someone is viewing today so I am going to try and take down line....I think.

Collaborate - that's not necessarily the case. Here's an article that explains how a right can fail to bind a purchaser for value if it's not been registered:

www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=429f51c1-77c9-424a-9af0-ae18479b1c14

For just one example, you can have an express right where there is an obligation on the owner of the burdened land to put it on his title after completion. If he doesn't do it - just as the seller here didn't disclose a dispute, although we don't know if the seller was one of the original parties to the deed - how is that the fault of the LR or the solicitor?

Here we don't know enough about the right being claimed, but we do know that the neighbour claims to have a written deed, so probably an express legal grant.

GNU - it depends on the type of right, basically!

Remove the hook. If it's his right to dry clothes, that does not mean he has the right to put up a washing line. Especially as he never uses it - the deed says nothing about constant use of your property to store his washing line, only to dry his washing. He sounds like a bored person to be honest!

Buy him a rotary washing line and plonk it in a corner or somewhere where you can both use the space in the short term?

At the end of the day, you have to live next door to one another and that is going to be pretty miserable if you are at war.
I would be looking to negotiate an amicable agreement