I'm in the process of selling my parent's house which has been in their possession for over 50 years.
All searches have been done and the buyers solicitor has come back with this: “We cannot see the title refers to any rights for the benefit of the Property to connect to, use and access the mains water pipe in the field. Our client’s lender’s requirements are that they will not accept indemnity insurance in place of formal rights".
According to the water plan, the mains pipe is not under the public highway but runs parallel to it and on the other side of the road to our house, through what is private land. My solicitor says it is this private land that we do not have any rights over.
However from everything I've read on line, the water pipe in question is the communication pipe because it links the mains to our external stop tap (on the boundary of our property), and communication pipes are the responsibility of the water company. So why do we need rights to use it?
The water plan only shows the mains pipe, it does not show the communication pipe or the stop tap. Is this the problem? If so how easy is it to get the water company to amend the error on their map?
Any advice gratefully received!