Buying a house with unclear boundaries - how much would solicitors charge to sort it out?

[Littlefish]

We are considering buying a beautiful old wreck of a farmhouse. It's our dream house and we are busy working out the finances.

At the moment, there are a couple of barns, a couple of cottages, the farmhouse and several acres of land. The whole lot are owned by the same family.

Because the houses and land have been in the family for some time, boundaries are not established. We just want to buy the farmhouse and some of the land.

Does anyone have any idea how much it would cost to have a solicitor draw up the necessary documents, change the deeds etc.

Also, there is a long drive down to the properties which would be shared responsibility for upkeep. How much would it cost to have the paperwork drawn up for this?

Really boring I know, but I need answers please!

Anyone?

But surely the people selling it should be sorting out the boundaries and the title deeds before they sell it?

I don't think you should be paying for it.

Ah - trixy, that would make sense! We looked round yesterday and asked where the boundaries were. It was the vendor who showed us round, but she wasn't sure where they were.

Presumably, if we proceed, the vendor will have to have the deeds drawn up before searches can be completed.

Having said that, the HIP comes with a survey, doesn't it. We haven't managed to get hold of the HIP yet. The estate agents said they hadn't received it yet.

I agree with trixymalixy, the people selling it should contact the land registry and define the boundary for the farmhouse and also sort out any issues with the deeds/shared upkeep areas...then they sell it to you. You can't agree to buy something if you don't know the boundaries, first thing the solicitor should do is send you a land registry map with the boundaries marked on it so you can confirm that that is what you are buying.

We purchased some farm land back in 2003. The vendors were selling several plots and in the end it took AAAGES because there were several boundaries that were unclear (farm had been in the same family for generations), they had to get all their land registered with the Land Registry before they could sell it.

Thank you Millarkie and Lionstar - that's really helpful. I will speak to the agents on Monday. All we've had so far is an OS map with the plots marked on it, but when we spoke to the vendor, she said those boundaries were incorrect!

ooohh how exciting! Maybe Slouchy will know a little about it?

btw - get your jacksey over to the meet up thread and choose your nosh

Great idea Furball. I never thought about asking Slouchy.

I'll bring the details next week so we can drool over the potential. At the moment, it's pretty much a wreck, but it could be amazing.

I'll come and choose my food!

Ooh littlefish..how exciting! Is it the massive lot out the outskirts of your village? Gorrrrgeous....

DH is out at the mo but should be back pretty soon' I'll get him to contribute when he returns.

We bought our house 3 years ago and wnted extra land to the back, as far as I'm aware it didn't cost any extra the agreed boundries were put on the map for the deeds,
We also have a shared lane which the farmer didn't want to give up so we have right away over it and this is in the contracts, although we do cut grass etc, but if they wanted us to chip in with maintence we would want shared ownership
As long as you do everything while your solicitor has the deeds it shouldn't cost extra

HI littlefish, dh is back and he says could be anything from £1K- £5K but he would happily talk you through it if you want to give us a ring.

Good luck!

(noticed the name-change? - as the sassy PramHuns now appear to have been chased off left the board, I thought I would revert!)

Thanks PlumbumMum - that's very interesting about the shared ownership/right of way issue. Another thing to add into our discussions!

Sassy - it's on the edge of the village, the white farmhouse. Absolutely beautiful, but needs soooooooo much work doing! (loving the new/old name - much more you, daaaarlink)