I am hoping to get some advice in regards to who I should be consulting regarding a problem we are now having with a house we purchased 6yrs ago.
In brief, have owned the property 6yrs and we specifically bought this property for its large driveway which happened to be at the front of the property. All searches were done and it states on deeds 2 car parking private driveway. Roll on all these years and we have been instructed by the council to stop parking on the drive as there is no dropped curb and it isn't possible to drop the curb as it is too close to the junction.
I do understand this however the house was built in 2006 and never been an issue before but the law is the law, how have we bought a house stating private driveway and it only come to light now?
The man at the council has been really good and looked into it for us, he located the original planning permissions from when the house was built and has basically said unfortunately planning permission was granted for a driveway at the back of the property which is further away from the junction and the front should have been a garden. We must stop using the drive immediately and our only option is to flip the garden and driveway over which is going to cost thousands.
Are we going to have to stump up the cost for this or could we pursue the estate agents who sold it to us or the previous owner? What kind of solicitor do I need to help with this? I feel like we were mis-sold this property, it was valued with a private driveway and nobody ever told us it was illegal and we would end up with a lump of land at the front no good to us and still have to use on street parking.
TIA