New neighbours

[Plannergirl9]

Sorry this is a long one. TLDR: Essentially we were gifted land from ex-neighbour when they died. New neighbours who bought her house has told us we must sell it to them.

A bit more backstorey. Our elderly neighbour lived next to us until they died in late December. She had a side bit of garden like an allotment that we used to help her with (hatched area on diagram). Unbeknownst to us she gifted us that area of land in her will. The rest of the house and land was to be sold and the money given to charity.

After the will reading we have had the land registry changed to confirm we now own the land. The house was put up for sale late January. In mid February we received a letter from a solicitor asking that we sell the land to the potential buyer of the house. We emailed back saying no we won't sell. We then heard nothing more from any solicitors. House was then sold during lockdown.

The new neighbours moved in on Monday. Yesterday they came to our door asking for the name of our solicitor so the land purchase can take place. We told them we were not planning on selling the land and that we told their solicitor that. The new neighbours didn't take it well. Apparently they only bought the house on the provision that they could buy the land and this was agreed with us via their solicitors.

The new neighbours got quite loud and angry about us apparently misleading them and left to speak to their solicitor. They seem to think we legally need to sell them the land as there was a written (email) contract between them and their solicitor who confirmed to them by email prior to the sale of the house that we would sell the land.

Aibu to a) not sell the land even though we technically didn't buy it and b) that the fact their solicitor has mislead them is not our problem?

Neighbours land is in red.
Our land is in black and the hatched area is the land they expect to buy.

Please don't engage with a third party ie neighbour's Dad Plannergirl19 just adds a complication to a very simple matter.

They've either purposely misconstrued what their solicitor told them or they're trying it on. Let sleeping dogs lie.

Don't engage with them on any level - you have told them to refer back to their solicitor and that you are not selling. Re- Shed, I would have just said you can check with the council as we did. Keep at arms distance - I'm sorry for the loss of your lovely neighbour and it was a nice thought to give you the land.

In March last year I applied to extend the lease of my flat: my solicitor sent all the documentation and payments to the Land Registry and there were no problems or complications. It should have been a quick and easy process and would in the past have been dealt with in a few weeks, but because the staff at the Land Registry have been pared to the boned I didn't receive the new extended lease and supporting documentation until November 2019. Six months. Other people were in similar situations, in fact there were articles in the press and on the radio about the delays.

So I'm sitting here wondering what kind of magic enabled a neighbour to die in late December and, allowing for Christmas and New Year shut downs, within a matter of weeks the Land Registry has processed everything and it's all nice and clear and new documents etc received.

OP, you seem to be very lucky in all respects!

Agree with prettybird (although can't comment on Scotland) my dads probate took less than 3 months to sort in UK, it doesn't take long if it's uncomplicated and it sounds like other than leaving the land to the op she had no other beneficiaries except a charity so seems perfectly possible to me.

You do not have to be a solicitor to undertake conveyancing, perhaps they have a friend or relative who undertook this for them

Possibly the dad or his mate did the conveyancing to save money and promised them he could negotiate and get the land then tried to hide his fuck up in Latin when he didn't.

Don't phone the dad but I would probably email the solicitor who sent the original email (with a copy of the crazy Latin email) and ask why the hell the buyers think you agreed to sell them the land when you told their firm you wouldn't.

Ooh it gets better! I've been a legal secretary for decades (mostly in conveyancing) and the closest I've got to weird Latin is mutatis mutandis.

(although probate throws up a few peculiar ones).

I would just act sympathetically and not worry about it.

I would definitely not be actively engaging with this.

Make them do all the hard work - don't call/email anyone, but be polite if they contact you.

That email doesn’t sound real at all.

Why on earth would she want you to speak to her dad?

I wouldn't be engaging with them at all.

You've told them that you don't intend to sell.

They need to talk to however told them that the land was up for sale.

If anyone ever did of course.

It might just have been mentioned in passing that if they wanted the land they could ask you & they took it as read that they could purchase it.

They are clearly trying it on. But I wonder how they know the late neighbour left you the land?
All very odd. You probably shouldn’t contact the ‘dad’ but I know my curiosity would get the better of me.

Shedbuilder - the Land Register of Scotland (which is our land property registration system - not the same as the Land Registry which only deals with England and Wales) is normally pretty fast and efficient.

I wouldn't put it past the Dad having written the letter.

Sounds a bit like FIL who is in his 80s. He retired from full time work in 1995 and his knowledge of everything in terms of tax, accounting, business practices is frozen at that point. He will wax lyrical about how DH should claim some certain tax allowance which was phased out in 1998 and would be exactly the sort of person to send that sort of email - except he'd type it on headed notepaper and run off a carbon copy for the file.

I think she thinks that her Dad can push you into a corner

@OVienna I think they may have imbibed something a little stronger than Limoncello....😂

OP, I think the Latin phrase you need for your NNs is “caveat emptor”!

Was it definitely their solicitor you had the correspondence with OP or could it have been the charity's solicitor as seller? I wonder if as a PP has said they've used the dad to do their conveyancing and he's screwed it all up hence them wanting you to ring him.

I always wonder why posters take it upon themselves to draft emails and text messages, etc when that's not been asked for by the OP. Anyway, if you smelled a rat initially OP I'm sure it now stinks to high heaven.

Firstly OP I wanted to say sorry that you lost your NDN, it sounds like you must have been quite close
Secondly I think I’d find the original correspondence with the solicitor and call them ‘furious’ that they’ve said you will sell the land in any way, and when they are dumbfounded and ask what the bloody hell you are talking about, say you’ve been shown the emails they received about the land etc.. I’m fairly sure the solicitor would contact them to tell them to STFU (pardon my french) and to stop faking emails for solicitors..

I think it might be illegal to impersonate a solicitor.

As a side note, I was chuffed I knew all the Latin and wish there was more use for it in daily life.

Oh. I would get a plaque made with Margeret's Memorial Garden on it and fix it firmily in place.

Possibly with a nice quote in Latin on it.

I've had an email from the female neighbour asking if we could speak to her dad. They didn't seem to be particularly young when we saw them. 🤷‍♀️
"My father will hear about this!"

@Ilovecats23

Firstly OP I wanted to say sorry that you lost your NDN, it sounds like you must have been quite close Secondly I think I’d find the original correspondence with the solicitor and call them ‘furious’ that they’ve said you will sell the land in any way, and when they are dumbfounded and ask what the bloody hell you are talking about, say you’ve been shown the emails they received about the land etc.. I’m fairly sure the solicitor would contact them to tell them to STFU (pardon my french) and to stop faking emails for solicitors..

Oo yes do this- check with their original solicitor and then your back is covered.

So I'm sitting here wondering what kind of magic enabled a neighbour to die in late December and, allowing for Christmas and New Year shut downs, within a matter of weeks the Land Registry has processed everything and it's all nice and clear and new documents etc received.

I had a transfer of land title fairly recently. All the paperwork went off to the Land Registry with the appropriate fees, I waited a month or so and then my solicitor emailed to say it had all gone through. And that was it.

I always wonder why posters take it upon themselves to draft emails and text messages, etc when that's not been asked for by the OP.

In the same way that everyone else is offering their advice on what they'd do, they're saying what they would do in the form of the communication they'd send.

I would be so tempted to ring the Dad just to hear what he has to say. I’m not recommending this course of action but I would be curious.

Is the dad a retired solicitor perhaps? I'd sooooo be calling him as I am incredibly nosy.