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. 😩

The right to dry clothes doesn't equate to you not being able to use your driveway. Not the same things at all as much as I'm sure he'd like them to be.

Park your car on your driveway. If he wants to dry clothes then fine, he can hang them on the line, but it is still your land and as such he can't prevent you from using it.

Meanwhile, as people have said, lawyer up and sort this out properly.

Good luck, neighbour disputes are horrible things to deal with!

Being the the process of selling our Home with exchange imminent it’s down to the vendor to disclose any boundary disputes whether they are ongoing or in the past. When the person you bought the house from completed their sales questionairre it was for them to disclose, if they didn’t then it’s not reasonable to assume your solicitor would have picked it up as they wouldn’t have bee looking for it.
You need to bring this to the attention of your solicitor as there maybe comeback on the person that sold you the property

The Law Society may be able to offer help. Your vendor has been economical with the truth in not declaring a dispute and your solicitor have been negligent in not pointing out the omission in the deeds.

www.lawsociety.org.uk/for-the-public/using-a-solicitor/complaints/

What does he actually want (I doubt it's somewhere to dry his clothes). Presumably he wants you to pay him to not exercise his rights. Could you do this short term whilst you sort out where you stand legally?

ot doesnt say washing line so take the hook down and give him an airer

What a bloody stressful situation OP.

No advice but just hoping you get this sorted!

Surely though he can’t stop you parking there just as you can’t stop him hanging his washing. There must be a solution to this. He doesn’t have more rights than you.

No, don't pay him anything as it will set a precedent.

The hook has been removed! I also popped a note through his door saying that I will not restrict his right to dry washing on the land as long as it doesn’t impede my right to park my car. Plus it must be taken down when not in use and not attached to my property. 💪

Go Pitwoman!

Will await with interest NDN reaction.

And there will be one!

We need regular updates please.

If it wasn't on the deeds, there is no such thing as "washing rights".

Simply cut down the washing line every time he hangs it and challenge him to take you to court. He won't.

Following op xx

Yes! Go OP! Defo seek independent legal advice before you make any big decisions.
I'm not a lawyer, but, someone is at fault here, you did say at one point it was on neither of your deeds....I don't know how it ended up being added?!? History of this but not informed?! That's the point of the 'searches' part of conveyancing by your solicitor when you were buying. We had information about a dispute from next door neighbour regarding a fence when we bought a previous house, had correspondence from complaint and resolution.
I'm not expert but it sounds like searches weren't completed efficiently. You potentially shouldn't have to foot the bill for any of this, don't take a hit on the value of your property without making sure you know you have done everything to try to get to the bottom of it and to explore all avenues regarding possible compensation/resolution so you're not left out of pocket.
Out of interest, did you buy the house at a reduced price for the market value? How long did the previous owner stay?

I'm wondering why the right wasn't registered before?
I'd get legal advice ( again) and would be thinking about pursuing the vendors, who clearly knew about it.

We see day in day out people who literally don’t give a fuck about others, about rights, about the law, about anyone or anything

Day after day people like that get away with it

A LOT of us need to be more “don’t give a fuck” when dealing with people like this washing line chancer.

Take the Hook/line down, every time. Let him take you to court

It's impossible to know from the info we have that the searches weren't completed properly. If there is a deed that isn't referred to on the title when it should have been, and the seller didn't provide a copy, how is the conveyancer supposed to know about it? Searches aren't physical; they don't involve going to the neighbour's house and rifling through his desk for old deeds!

If it should have been registered and wasn't, the fault lies with whomever was due to register it. That may well mean the OP isn't bound by it, see the article I posted above. If the neighbour then wants to pursue whomever should have registered his lost right, that's up to him.

Similarly with an ongoing dispute - if the conveyancer asked for details of any dispute (which is in the standard docs anyway), he isn't a psychic. If the seller concealed a dispute, he's at fault for misrepresenting the position, not the conveyancer.

If it's an equitable right, it may well not be registered/registrable and only a lawyer can tell you after asking OP questions and reviewing the file.

Blanket statements like "no such thing as washing rights" are dangerous because it's not true. If you specifically allow your neighbour to hang washing on your land, that's a right. If your neighbour uses your land to dry his washing (or park on your drive, or run something over your land, or walk across your garden etc etc) for a long period of time without being challenged, he can acquire permanent rights to do it. Every case will be different and will depend on its own facts.

Here, if there is a written right and it wasn't registered when it ought to have been, the most simple thing to do would be to say that OP bought the house for a fair price and therefore is not bound by it. See if the neighbour puts his hand in his pocket to take it to court after that. But here the OP was advised to have the right put on her deeds, so this option may now have gone. She needs to check why this advice was given and whether it's negligent, in addition to everything else said above. After all, such a right may well affect saleability and price, so it should have been reviewed carefully.

I’m struggling to understand why anyone would allow this right to be added to their property in the first place and why someone would be so insistent on enforcing it?

If I bought a house that said I could hang my washing in my neighbors driveway I’d think that would probably be annoying for my neighbor and I wouldn’t do it.

What is it about some people that they’d rather annoy their neighbors than just be decent human beings?

Make sure you fill the hole OP - doesn't matter what his "rights" are , drilling a hole in your wall ain't one of them....

Piffle - unless the deed says "to erect and maintain a hook at the spot marked on the plan at appendix one for the purpose of affixing a line for the drying of clothes for private purposes only..."

Like I said, the ink could still be wet

The first thing I'd do is go onto the Land Registry web site and print off the registry details for BOTH properties. It will cost a couple of pounds but will be well worth it.

That information will show when your neighbour got the right to the washing line registered and may well give a clue about the easement being registered on both properties. If it does show that there was that intention to jointly register it then Land Registry are at fault for not doing so. If both properties show it - then your Solicitor is at fault. If only one (your neighbours) shows it, then the seller is at fault by failing to honestly answer the question "Have you had a dispute with your neighbour at this property which has been resolved or is ongoing? If ‘Yes’ please provide details". In which case they're more than likely liable.

You will have legal remedies, but you have to use them. Cutting up the washing line - property of your neighbour - could lead to a criminal conviction or at least a caution, so ignore those suggestions.

I'd put a note through telling him you are going to rent the house out to students or convert it into a HMO!

That should put things into perspective for him!

Haha, yeah! Tell him that as you're having trouble selling the house because of the dispute/access rights, you're going to rent it to the council who will put tenants on benefits in there.

He's probably the type who thinks all tenants on benefits are troublemakers, and maybe it'll put the wind up him!

It will be much cheaper to get legal advice than sell the house at 85% of the value!