Easement Concern - What to expect?

[EquiumDuo]

Hi All,

We are nearing the end of the purchasing part of the process, we were sent the contract, title and plan to sign. BUT we have a wrinkle that I need to understand, my google-fu is not giving me good results.

 

Basically we are buying land  as shown below:

 

Our plot in Red circle, plus we were told it has an easement for the blue area to allow access for the plot. This easement is mentioned in some of the documentation and also confirmed by the seller himself that it exists. BUT its not specifically mentioned (to us) at all in the contract, title or plan we were sent to sign.

 

One of the documents presented to us for the original splitting of the land has this part in it:

 

And also includes an attached drawing:

 

So I don't feel like anyone is lying or "pulling a fast one" with this matter. BUT I like to close out any open threads and in an effort to close any conversations before they happen, the house next door to our plot (which included this land originally) is being sold. We would like to make sure there is absolutely no room for interpretation.

So to summarise my question a bit better:

 

Despite evidence that there is an easement in place, its not specifically mentioned in either our title, plan or contract. Should we expect it to be? The most relevant term we can find is:

 

"The land has the benefits to the rights reserved by but is subject to the rights granted by a transfer of the land lying to the west of the land in this title dated 24 July 2008" (The previous title transfer when the plot was sold to the current owner we are buying it from).

 

Note: I have asked our solicitors, and discussed with them prevously. Very much the response is "its fine" and they didnt raise it as a concern themselves.

[ProDave]

My concern is has the plot got planning yet?

 

Are the planners happy with access that close to a corner?  Just because the existing house may be using that access does not mean the planners will allow a new access at that point for visibility reasons.

 

That might be a bigger concern that the planners say no you can't use that access.

[epsilonGreedy]

Do your Deeds include a definition of the Access Way?

 

In my Deeds the Common Access Way is colour highlighted in an attached plan.

[EquiumDuo]

Yes the plot has full planning permission. The previous owner actually built the footings and secured the building regulations (confirmed by building control) in 2011.  We are notifying our intent to change the design to planning, but we are advised that our change is under permitted development anyway, but this is good practise.

 

If we wanted to, we could just build the house as it is currently planned. Sorry this wasn't clear, but thats why I am here.

[EquiumDuo]

Sorry for the double post.

 

We don't own the plot so I havent seen the deeds yet? or maybe its caleld something else? I'll re-read what we have.

[epsilonGreedy]

1 minute ago, EquiumDuo said:

We are notifying our intent to change the design to planning, but we are advised that our change is under permitted development anyway, but this is good practice.

 

 

I think permitted development rights do not apply until the original development is completed as per plan. Could someone else confirm?

 

 

Future permitted development rights might influence the thinking of a planning officer when reviewing your formal application to vary something part way through development. You should also confirm your original approved planning did not withdraw standard permitted development rights from the outset.

[EquiumDuo]

Just now, epsilonGreedy said:

 

I think permitted development rights do not apply until the original development is completed as per plan. Could someone else confirm?

 

 

Future permitted development rights might influence the thinking of a planning officer when reviewing your formal application to vary something part way through development. You should also confirm your original approved planning did not withdraw standard permitted development rights from the outset.

To clarify, we are working with an architect who also oversee's the planning applications, he strongly agreed that the changes we want to make are likely to be accepted. Thats not a concern for us right now, msot of the changes are to the internal layout of the building, a non material ammendment is how it is classified on the planning portal, and changes to the look of the windows/styles to bring them to a more modern look. I don't think we should be worried about that right now? Its the right of way thats my main point for today.

 

 

[epsilonGreedy]

6 minutes ago, EquiumDuo said:

We don't own the plot so I havent seen the deeds yet? or maybe its caleld something else? I'll re-read what we have.

 

 

"Easements" that would give you rights of access across other land are something the seller will propose as the solicitors communicate, they should do this to entice you to purchase the plot.

 

Is your plot being split from the main house & garden at the point of your purchase?

[EquiumDuo]

Just now, epsilonGreedy said:

 

"Easements" that would give you rights of access across other land are something the seller will propose as the solicitors communicate, they should do this to entice you to purchase the plot.

 

Is your plot being split from the main house & garden at the point of your purchase?

No this was done by the previous owner of the plot. He bought it, updated the planning permission (fullg iven) and started building. He got to the footings done, building control approved (and locked in the building regs) and then stopepd building.  We are trying to buy the plot as is, will build a variation of the plot (redoing part of the footings regarding the basement, the current is not so great), and then build a house on top.

 

Maybe easement is not the right word? Is it access way?

 

I thougth we are getting a https://www.landregistry-titledeeds.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/information/private-rights-of-way.asp

 

Express right of way, and as above in my oiriginal post is how its laid out. We've asked our solicitors, but I was trying to better understand it for myself, rather than relying on our solicitors to say "yes, its fine."

[nod]

21 minutes ago, EquiumDuo said:

Sorry for the double post.

 

We don't own the plot so I havent seen the deeds yet? or maybe its caleld something else? I'll re-read what we have.

You can pull a copy of the deeds off the land registry site £3

 

 

 

[EquiumDuo]

I have the title and title plan, is that what you mean? If so, the plot is highlighted on the title plan, but not the easement. Only the hand drawn sketch for the 2008 title transfer. Where our title transfer states we are beholden/inheriting (whats the correct word here?) the wording quoted as:

 

"The land has the benefits to the rights reserved by but is subject to the rights granted by a transfer of the land lying to the west of the land in this title dated 24 July 2008"

 

So maybe this is me misunderstadning the terminology we are using?

[epsilonGreedy]

8 minutes ago, EquiumDuo said:

No this was done by the previous owner of the plot. He bought it, updated the planning permission (fullg iven) and started building.

 

 

Ok so now you have a bigger problem because your seller cannot grant you additional access rights to the strip of land owned by the plot to the left. You will be constrained to whatever was agree at the point of the original plot split. I suggest you obtain the LR docs for both your future plot and the retained land which acquired a new LR title number at the point of the original split. A good solicitor would also review the Deeds of the original plot prior to the split.

 

As @nod say you can get your own copies and spend an evening reading these.

 

15 minutes ago, EquiumDuo said:

Maybe easement is not the right word? Is it access way?

 

 

The "Access Way" is a thing. Your rights to the retained land would fall under the category of easements. Rights to use the access way would be one example of an "easement". Also look for the definitions part of the Deeds to establish what the Access Way is.

 

Easements can work both ways, the retained land might have easement rights to your future plot.

 

21 minutes ago, EquiumDuo said:

rather than relying on our solicitors to say "yes, its fine."

 

 

Ask the solicitor for the numerical ids of the contract clauses that demonstrate "yes, its fine."

[EquiumDuo]

Thansk for your patience in responding. I appreciate it. I will look into it.

[epsilonGreedy]

14 minutes ago, EquiumDuo said:

So maybe this is me misunderstadning the terminology we are using?

 

 

I think "Deeds" are a collective term used by we lay people, legal pros refer to specific parts of the Deeds such as Title and Plan. You need to scrutinize the large body of text in LR document TP1.

[Temp]

I only discovered recently that there can be more info about this sort of thing in the "Land Charges Register" and/or a "Local Land Charges Register". Your solicitor may/should already have obtained info from there but might not have shared the results with you? I wasn't very impressed with our solicitor. They seem to assume that if there were any problems they would have come up in the past. That might be true for an existing house but they didn't seem concerned about the different issues that can come up when buying a building plot. Things like ransom strips.

 

The covenant may deal with the access issue but do you also need to run services/utilities over that patch of land in blue or can they come via another route?

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by Temp

[Temp]

7 hours ago, EquiumDuo said:

"The land has the benefits to the rights reserved by but is subject to the rights granted by a transfer of the land lying to the west of the land in this title dated 24 July 2008" (The previous title transfer when the plot was sold to the current owner we are buying it from).

 

Presumably the house to the west and the blue land is (still) all on one title? Have you got a copy of that one? If not then download one for £3ish  from the real land registry site (more from the fakes). You can get it by email in 20mins. May need to register. 

 

I would expect there to be a restrictive covenant in that title added in 2008 because all Restrictive Covenants created since 13 October 2003 must be registered at the Land Registry.  Hopefully there will be one in there that will preclude them building on the blue land, preserve your right of access over it and share costs etc. 

[EquiumDuo]

Ok, I've done some digging. The TP1 Title and Title plan cover the other/current house as well as the land to which we have the right of way access/easement.

 

Thier title plan for this specifically states:

"A transfer of the land in this title dated 24 July 2008 made between X and Y... contains restrictive covenants"

 

I have a copy of that title transfer (provided by our solicitor) and that is where I got the info for my Opening Post, that states that the area allows access for both the house and the newly (at that point) created plot next door. Requiring both the building of a new fence (it exists so I assume this was done in time) plus the shared costs of creating and maintaining a shared driveway.

 

At this point the person we bought from got the full planning permission and started on the footings in 2011, securing building control/regs and subsequently stopped building for their own reasons (Their daughter had a kid and they moved to be closer to them). They sat on the site for years before eventually putting it up for sale in 2019 and we found it in 2020 and are willing to take on the plot.

As I said above the TP1 we were given states that the previous restrictive covenents are in place and are registers on "next door." All the ref numbers and dates match the docs package I have.

 

I think its all in place, it just wasn't particularly clear to me.

 

Tell me if I am interpreting this incorrectly?

 

Thansk everyone for helping with some of these terms and some good questions to ask both the other party and also myself. There has been a lot of learning on my part.

Edited March 8, 2021 by EquiumDuo