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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask for a price rededuction of house purchase?

87 replies

Whitescarf · 26/11/2018 16:31

Me and DP are currently trying to buy our first home, agreed purchase price of 228 for a three bed end of terrace.

Searches and reports from solicitor show a few problems - mainly:

there is shared access next to our garden, running behind ours and a few of the houses next to us. Previous owners moved their fence 1 metre into the shared access which is not on the deeds and we wouldn't legally own the area. We asked if they would have this put on the deeds before purchase however they refused, saying it's too small to put on there. This also wasn't mentioned when we viewed the property.

If in the future we had to move the fence back, we would have to knock down a shed and a summer house to do this, costing us money and time.

The original owners of the land the house is built on made agreements for no houses to be built on the land. The house was built after this and indemnity insurance was taken out to cover any loss as this is still enforceable, however the cover is not enough and the sellers do not want to take out new insurance to cover this.

Based on these, would we be unreasonable to ask for a price deduction or are they not that big of an issue?

We originally wanted to settle on 226 but they wouldn't go below 228 and said they would give us a few household goods for the 228 as well, so we settled with this, so I'm not sure they would even agree to a reduction!

Appreciate any replies

OP posts:

AdobeWanKenobi · 27/11/2018 10:58

Shared access is a VERY normal thing

It is, and arguments over it are also VERY normal. If you're buying property with shared anything you are relying on your new neighbour to be a reasonable person. Thats a lot of trust to put in a stranger.

I'm sure when it works it's perfect, but a quick google and pages of threads with people begging for help show it very often doesn't work.

There are a lot of houses out there. This one wouldn't be the one I went for.

Bluntness100 · 27/11/2018 13:15

they viewed the property and yes they are blocking the right of way which exists over that specific area of land

Eh? The area might be huge and they are blocking nothing. There could be plenty of other space in that area. I'm fairly sure they wouldn't have done it if it blocked right of access.

Op, what has your solicitor said?

Original poster

Whitescarf · 27/11/2018 13:19

It's not blocked the right of way at all, it's still accessible, there's just a metre less of it!

Solicitor is looking into the indemnity insurance for us and offered a few suggestions 're the boundary line, mainly asking the company who own the land if they would transfer it to the sellers, but of course they could refuse and want money for it, so we're not keen on that idea.

Still holding out a bit of hope but I'm doubtful.

Its in a really nice, quiet area as well but there's plenty more houses on the market so we'll just have to look for another if this falls through!

OP posts:

user1474894224 · 27/11/2018 13:27

alarm bells ringing....the owners don't want to take out indemnity insurance? Don't want to or can't? .....I would let this house go and find something else. It's a buyers market at the moment with sales slowing down......so you should be able to find something else easily.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 27/11/2018 14:44

the owners don't want to take out indemnity insurance? Don't want to or can't?

I was wondering the same myself. Though no legal expert, it seems to me such an obvious thing for the sellers to have done that it's hard to understand why they haven't done it

When selling my last house, it turned out the Land Registry had lost the details of right of access over a shared area. Luckily it turned out I had a copy, but in the meantime my solicitors were explaining the indemnity policy I'd need to provide for a buyer ... and there certainly wasn't any suggestion the buyers should pay for it

Jaxhog · 27/11/2018 14:52

We bought a house a few years ago with a similar problem i.e. 3 houses built where there was a covenant that there should only be two. We got indemnity insurance to cover it. It wasn't very much as I recall.

Downtheroadfirstonleft · 27/11/2018 16:10

Look, everybody on here is trying to help, but we can't really because we either aren't solicitors, or don't know the particulars of this case properly. Keep calm, talk to your solicitor and then reflect on their advice. There are many, many houses out there, but none of them are entirely hassle free. Good luck!

DogInATent · 27/11/2018 16:22

Walkaway.

boundary disputes are never tidy. It's not as simple as having the moved fence "put on the deeds". The moved fence has stolen a strip of the shared access from the other property owners with a right to use it as access. Have you spoken to the neighbours about it, and what they think?

the breach of the "no build" covenant would have me walking away on its own. You know what enforcement of this would mean, right?

Jubarbrhubarb · 27/11/2018 17:51

We had the exact same problem when trying to buy a house. No mention of them using a strip of land that wasn't theirs or that the bedroom over the alleyway at the side of the house wasn't on the plan.
We asked them to sort it before we would buy. They said no. We asked our solicitors how much it would cost for indemnity insurance and they said only about £300.
We asked the vendors again to sort it, and they said we could do it after we'd bought.
We ended up pulling out of the deal on the advice of our solicitors. No use in borrowing trouble for later.
When I called the estate agents to tell them they were really put out. I told them they shouldn't be marketing a house showing land that wasn't legally for sale. They told me they had sold the property twice before and had no problems.
I think it was the vendors solicitors that had not spotted the plans were wrong in the first place, and just let their purchase go through.
Needless to say the house wasn't sold and was rented out within weeks.
Again...don't borrow trouble..not worth the grief when you need to sell again.

IamtheDevilsAvocado · 27/11/2018 18:31

It's the sort of issue that may costs tens of thousands potentially to sort out in the future... Do you want the hassle...

Unless your solicitor advises that its easy to sort NOW before you buy... I would walk away....

A pal of mine had no end of problems with new neighbours that suddenly decided they owned the shared access.... It cost them 24k to sort out... Pal was right as they knew she was... New neighbours were just trying it on... But bloody expensive for pal

Munchyseeds · 27/11/2018 18:37

I would walk away from this and keep looking....it could end up being a nightmare!

redastherose · 27/11/2018 21:14

Sorry but it doesn't matter if other people can still get along the right of way they are in breach by obstructing any part of it. It only takes one person to complain and you've got the expense of moving the fence, shed and summer house.

WRT the restrictive covenant not to build, how much of an issue this is depends on all sorts of factors. If the covenant was put on the title many years ago and it is unlikely that anyone is aware of the person entitled to enforce the covenant then that is possibly why the original developer was able to obtain the insurance in the first place.

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