Hi everyone,
I'm new to the forums so please let me know if I've posted this in the wrong place!
I’m in the process of buying a first-floor maisonette with a 980-year lease. Our solicitor has flagged up a few ‘serious’ problems, which have never been noted before, despite the property being sold a good few times since it was built.
The first is a right of access issue. Underneath the maisonette are two garages (one of which would be ours) and a driveway that leads to a car parking area for other properties in the development. Although we have right of access to the driveway, we apparently don’t have it for the area behind – which is where the garage doors are located. The seller has lived there for 5 years and has never had a problem accessing the area. Her solicitor has obtained a quote for indemnity insurance regarding this issue. The freeholder (company who built the development 20 years ago) says that the area does not belong to them, and they don’t know who it does belong to. Which seems hard to believe – surely the plot of land they bought to build their development on wouldn’t have had a small patch in the middle that didn’t belong to them?!
The second issue is that apparently the lease doesn’t include rights to maintain/repair foundations. Despite asking for clarification about this I’m still unsure as to what it means – our solicitor says that our mortgage company may not lend because of this ‘defect’ in the lease, and it may prevent us ever selling on the property.
Any advice or help would be much appreciated – as a first-time buyer I’m new to all of this. I wonder if the solicitor is making a mountain out of a molehill – if the property has changed hands many times before, why has no-one picked up on these problems? And if our mortgage company are prepared to lend still (we will find this out soon), surely other buyers in the future will be able to secure a mortgage for the property? Having already paid out for survey and solicitors fees, I’m reluctant to pull out unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Many thanks.
Laura
I'm new to the forums so please let me know if I've posted this in the wrong place!
I’m in the process of buying a first-floor maisonette with a 980-year lease. Our solicitor has flagged up a few ‘serious’ problems, which have never been noted before, despite the property being sold a good few times since it was built.
The first is a right of access issue. Underneath the maisonette are two garages (one of which would be ours) and a driveway that leads to a car parking area for other properties in the development. Although we have right of access to the driveway, we apparently don’t have it for the area behind – which is where the garage doors are located. The seller has lived there for 5 years and has never had a problem accessing the area. Her solicitor has obtained a quote for indemnity insurance regarding this issue. The freeholder (company who built the development 20 years ago) says that the area does not belong to them, and they don’t know who it does belong to. Which seems hard to believe – surely the plot of land they bought to build their development on wouldn’t have had a small patch in the middle that didn’t belong to them?!
The second issue is that apparently the lease doesn’t include rights to maintain/repair foundations. Despite asking for clarification about this I’m still unsure as to what it means – our solicitor says that our mortgage company may not lend because of this ‘defect’ in the lease, and it may prevent us ever selling on the property.
Any advice or help would be much appreciated – as a first-time buyer I’m new to all of this. I wonder if the solicitor is making a mountain out of a molehill – if the property has changed hands many times before, why has no-one picked up on these problems? And if our mortgage company are prepared to lend still (we will find this out soon), surely other buyers in the future will be able to secure a mortgage for the property? Having already paid out for survey and solicitors fees, I’m reluctant to pull out unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Many thanks.
Laura