What to do at query stalemate before exchange

[Burnly]

I'm in a really frustrating and slightly strange situation in that I have a buyer for my mother's house (probate sale) that has always seemed very keen and wanting to buy as soon as possible to the extend of handpicking some items of furniture to keep and having architects over a few times for some works she wants done. Slightly concerningly she's also had some items of post delivered to the house which I wasn't going to raise as despite being uncomfortable I took it at least as a very good sign the sale would get wrapped up smoothly and she wouldn't pull out. However, her solicitor is not backing down over a minor issue over the land registry plan whereby the land registry's map search tool is showing a slightly larger area within the garden than on the title (very slight in practice were talking a few meters and it's a boundary my mother had no issues in the 20 odd years she lived there). We've given repeated assurances that map search accurately reflects the boundary and now the solicitor is trying to get me to do statutory declaration to agree to an area she's arbitrarily marked on the title plan which my solicitor advises isn't necessary. It's a bit of a stalemate now and I'm considering relisting to force a decision and her choice to get post sent to a house she is delaying buying is making me quite angry! I wondered if anyone has any advice.

When we sold my DH's parents' house (probate) a few years ago, the buyers solicitor held things up just before exchange over a boiler that, although ancient, was working and had been passed as safe to use but should be updated.

After two weeks of to and fro with him absolutely digging his heels in, we contacted the buyer directly to find they were also getting frustrated with the hold up, had no idea what their solicitor was doing and was told by him it was our paperwork delaying things!

Don't assume this is necessarily anything to do with the buyer - might be worth checking with her directly to see if she even knows about what the solicitor is doing here, especially as it potentially threatens the sale.

The map search plan isn't to be relied on.
The title plan which shows the red line boundary is what they are buying.

So if there is a discrepancy between the two their solicitor is correct to raise it.

Why not just do the stat. Dec . The buyers lawyer might have an offer of Insurance and the stat. Dec is needed for that.

Alternatively raise the query with the LR. They are ok at responding now.

a slightly larger area within the garden than on the title (very slight in practice were talking a few meters and it's a boundary my mother had no issues in the 20 odd years she lived there). A few meters is not 'slight' and the fact that your mother had no issue with it has nothing to do with the current situation. They are entirely right to pursue clarification.
The post is a completely separate issue.

I'd bite the bullet and sort it now. Even if you relist and try to sell to someone else, the buyer's solicitor will raise it if they're doing their job properly. Also it will put buyers off if they have this anomaly hanging over their head for when they sell

Just do the stat dec (assuming you can truthfully say what they want you to say).

Our title plan suggests half our garage is not on our land. We got the sellers to do a stat dec to say they understood they owned the entire area the garage was on and had used it without interference the entire time they had lived there. It was a bit of a rush to get sorted but no big deal.

I agree it's not the buyer's fault their solicitor is making a big deal about this, they may not even be aware of what their solicitor is doing and if they are, could just as easily say you are being unreasonable by not signing a stat dec over something you insist is not a problem.

I would just sign it and get things moving again.

I would get the land registration sorted out, it will come up again if you go with another buyer. I suspect the post is due to buyer doing online comparison quotes for insurance, utilities etc and the companies are following up with letters, I doubt buyer is aware.

Re the post I think it's quite common to start getting post for the other party before you move out. Though normally it starts to happen from Exchange onwards, it is an excellent sign that they intend to Exchange asap.

The people who were buying our house last year switched energy providers before exchange! Soon screwed them over with that. Fuckers.

Wow, surely they did not intend to do that?

@Twiglets1 they did.
They were going on holiday the day after completion and when I put a stop to it they tried again!

It's caused me months of grief with EDF because they screwed up the billing on the back of it.

My solicitor was very particular about the colour of a line on the land registry and there was lots of to-ing and fro-ing between solicitors about it. I had no idea it was happening until I got a call from the estate agent who told me the buyers were getting worried. In the end my solicitor insisted they took out an indemnity policy.
I suspect it’s just solicitors doing their job in the background.
As for the post, I have sorted bills and car details etc ahead of completion so it’s possible some post may have arrived already. I didn’t start this until after exchange but we have a 4 week gap. I would see that as a sign the buyer is committed.

Our vendor did a declaration like this. I'm confident the original owner of our place stole land from next door and the council. But it is now so obviously part of our garden I can't imagine anyone would argue about it. What are your concerns about doing it?

We had to get our vendors do a statutory declaration and buy an indemnity policy as, rather randomly, when they digitised the land registry maps it put two triangles of our drive/car park as belonging to the neighbours!! There is no way it ever did belong to them as there is a bloody stream between the properties that they can't cross! 🤣

Just sign the stat dec and complete the sale!! It's you holding it up, not the buyer

Nothing wrong with stat decs as long as you only sign what you agree with and can confirm from YOUR OWN period of ownership, i.e. the probate period, and also make it clear you're signing in your capacity as trustee/executor and not the owner/occupier.

You can't possibly sign anything related to the deceased's period of ownership as you have no idea of what went on in the past when you didn't own it. You'd be relying effectively on "hearsay" of your mother telling you everything.

But, yes, solicitors can be pain just "going through the motions" when their buyers know nothing and havn't asked questions. I think it's the "tick box" culture of using junior staff for "fact finding" tasks, but they've no common sense - it's like a human version of "computer says no".

When my mother died, the buyer's solicitors were wanting all kinds of confirmations as to when works had been done (i.e. age of boiler, woodwork treatment in the loft, certificates/invoices for double glazing, etc). I obviously knew things had been done but I had no recollection of dates, who did what, extent of work, etc., so I gave them the few bits of paper I found in the house and very rough dates/scope of work that I knew had been done, but they just wouldn't let go - despite me saying there was no more paperwork, got a letter back asking for it all again - they clearly hadn't read the my letter/info and let their computer churn out another "reminder" for all the sections unanswered! There had also been a boundary dispute with the next door neighbour at one point, before I was even born, that they'd picked up on somehow (maybe some correspondence in with the paper deeds) - the neighbour was also long since dead and their house sold 2 or 3 times since, so I couldn't give them any info, but they kept hounding me for that too!

The buyers came round to measure up and I apologised to them for not being able to answer their questions, and they hadn't a clue what was holding it up and it wasn't them being awkward asking questions - they said they'd contact their solicitor and they must have done because they stopped pestering me and the sale went through shortly after.

All my replies have been advised by my solicitor and I have been responding very quickly so I disagree it is me holding up the sale. I am worried about signing a stat Dec as the buyers solicitor seems based on her wording to want me to verify her very rough annotation on the land registry file which may not be correct. It's a liability issue I believe. The physical boundary and where the fence is very difficult to argue with and my solicitor seems to think map search is a reliable source that I can confirm so I'd probably take her legal opinion on it over someone on here who says it isn't. My solicitor has been surprised that our assurances so far haven't been enough. I'd sign a stat Dec if it just said I was satisfied ownership relates to the boundaries as you see them and the map search tool but they don't seem to be asking for this. I also don't think I should be agreeing something on behalf of someone who has died. In any case I am considering asking my estate agent to pass on my contact to the buyer to see if this coming from her and where she stands. Kind of people to respond so quickly with their thoughts.

Re post - just return marked 'not at this address'.

Also the stat Dec request only came through yesterday prior to this they were trying to get me to agree to the solicitors scribbles on the title which is scaled very far back and I couldn't possibly verify it. The could have asked for someone more formal from me in writing much earlier like the Dec rather than try to get me to agree to arbitrary highlighting. They even asked for me to pay for someone to take measurements which would have just raised more questions and I am some 3 hours from the house and unable to just be there at a moment's notice.

We were that party in our house purchase. The solicitor is working for the mortgage company and in our case wasn't happy that approximately 20cm by 5m our "our land" was the wrong side of the garden fence. The seller got so cross with the solicitor (bizarrely it was him that flagged the boundary issue on the fixtures and fittings form but then refused to speak to the neighbour about moving the fence). But the solicitor couldn't ignore the information they had. In the end we wrote to the solicitor thanking them for their advice but letting them know we would accept any fall out. The solicitor was then able to move on, as they weren't conflicted with regards to the mortgage company.

I hadn't considered someone's point about the post being from insurance companies of similar that's actually a fair point so perhaps I shouldn't be overreacting to that.

She's also a cash buyer so there isn't a mortgage companies requirements to consider but that's interesting to know what the result was in your case (raindropskeepfalling) thank you

Honestly, there's really nothing to be gained by digging in your heels. Just go for an easy life and sort the stat Dec as best you can ... and move on.

I can see why many people are advising me to do the stat dec and perhaps I will. However I do feel nervous as it's being asked for under terms my solicitor has advised I should not agree to and it feels rather late in the day (exchange date was supposed to be last Thursday and completion supposed to be this Thursday) as this query was first raised several weeks ago and we have replied with all the info we can about the boundary before there was a long gap and then they re raised it. Difficult for me to understand why they could not have discussed it earlier and makes me fear it won't be enough and more time has been wasted but I plan to get onto my solicitor Monday and see how best we can fulfil it without leaving me open to potential disputes down the line if it comes to it.

I wouldn’t worry about the statutory declaration too much - I’m not sure what liability would come to you if there’s an issue in the future? It’s essentially a document saying ‘this is the situation as I understand it’.

I’ve not been a solicitor for a number of years but, provided what you’re saying in the stat dec is true, I’ve not known there to be a liability coming from one. It’s more a case of giving them something to rely on in the event there’s a boundary dispute in the future, because they won’t be able to easily trace you and ask about it in 10 years time when the new owner of the next door property starts kicking off!

My concern is the buyers solicitor is asking me for one that confirms occupation of the land as per what they annotated on the title plan which is difficult to confirm for accuracy whereas I can only confirm that I believe that the map search tool seems to reflect the physical boundary. I'm worried they won't approve it if it doesn't exactly correlate with what they want me to say. But maybe I am overthinking it. Part of the trouble is the language in forwarded emails from the buyer's solicitors is sometimes a bit ambiguous for me and my solicitor is difficult to get ahold of to explain it. I've also been operating on the believe my solicitor is giving sound advice and she doesn't think we should do one. But equally you could argue the buyer is doing the same from hers and perhaps I should override my solicitor this time.