Ransom strip

[yellowcone]

Just discovered 6 months since offer that the property we are purchasing has a small strip of land (rear garden not separated by a fence or any other structure) owned by the previous owners our vendors purchased from , they have said that they had agreed to a 7 year period from the purchase date and if within that time they permitted residential development they were liable to make payment to the previous owners and that after that time frame it would be removed from the deeds. The 7 year period ended over 10 years ago , our solicitor has asked that they remove this entry from the title.

Is it right that the entry could remain on the deeds if they were told it would only last 7 years ?

Is this easy to remove or could it become a nightmare ?

Don't want to panic unnecessarily but also need to know if this could add onto an already very long process.

Any advice , Thanks !

It's an option agreement which has expired. It can be removed easily but often developers etc don't bother.

The sellers solicitor should do this and apply to have the application expedited to prevent it holding up the sale.

It's very usual to find ancient agreements on title registers which aren't applicable. It's also very usual to get them removed.

@GingerLiberalFeminist thank you! Yes I did think that might be the case and yes our solicitor us asked for the application to be expedited.

Do you think there is any reason they didn't proceed with doing this when questioned about it from the initial queries and my solicitor has now had to request the do it ? Or is that also pretty standard ? Thanks!