A friend of mine has a large garden with a small back access point from a road behind them.
It is 100% their land and could be used as an entrance for a mews/retirement house down the line.
It would park about 4 cars, so not huge but definitely valuable and useful.
It is occasionally used to put things into their shed at the very end of the ganden and is accessed via a gate at the back of the garden.
A terraced house shares a small part of the boundary but they have never had any contact with the owners and don't know them.
They have no rights whatsoever to this piece of land.
Imagine her surprise to hear some activity going on down there and when she went down to investigate, found a truck with work men installing a gate so that this other house would have access to the road and the land to use as a back entrance too.
Turns out the house had been recently sold and was to be fully renovated and they were led to believe they had a right of access.
They were informed by the bidding builders that a back access point would be most advantageous cost wise so they were going ahead with installing access......all on the word of an EA.
Unbelievable.
The builders couldn't believe what they were hearing when my friend firmly corrected them, stopped immediately, as my friend very quickly filmed the interaction.
The new owners were called as were the BIL of my friend who is a solicitor.
Nothing is on paper so the EA has completely denied giving any such information and has stated that the general advice of the option to approach a new neighbour and make an offer of payment for access, is absolutely the only suggestion he might have made.
A he said, she said kind of thing!
The youngish and she thinks, a bit naive new owners were adamant they were told this.
However, as historically there was no access my friend doesn't know what to think, but suspects in the heat of a sales pitch they were told what they wanted to hear and chose to run with it.
There was a bit of back and forth, but they clearly hadn't a leg to stand on, so
the negotiated agreement was that they would be granted access for a limited amount of time, pay rent for the privilege and would build and pay for a wall, lay fresh gravel etc., upon completion.
They also had to sign an unequivocal acceptance of absolutely no claim to the land.
It was still saving these people substantial money as the access for the builders was just so much easier, not necessitating a crane, not on the main road etc.
Personally I have met what I thought were a couple of decent EA's but truth is I wouldn't trust them as far as I'd throw them.
Far too many friends have had bad experiences where they behaved with neither honestl nor with honour, ie driven totally by their cut.
As buying a house is for most people their single largest purchase, the stakes are very high.
Also another friend has high trees at the end of her large garden and when a bordering house to the very back of her garden was sold, she had a registered solicitors letter to the new owners sent, reminding them that the trees were on HER boundary side and their height etc. was NOT to be touched.
She also said god knows what the EA has told them.
Seems to be a common view!