Felt tipped pen limbo.

[epsilonGreedy]

This is my first Selfbuilder's whinge and my plot is still a green field.

 

The solicitors are debating the significance of a blunt felt tipped pen which equates to a 1.5m wide strip of land on the boundary of my plot. The problem came to light when the Land Registry rejected a search saying that the proposed land split (known as a "part" in solicitor lingo) included about 8m x 1.5m of land already sold to another neighbouring new build plot.

 

I reckon the seller is at fault for depicting the plot divisions of the original parcel of land at a much lower resolution than the land registry uses. When the first plot sold the LR probably did their best to interpret a fat felt tipped line and now as the second plot is sold to me the slight shift in the true boundary has come to light. Given the good weather I might be tempted to let this go but the error creates a slight risk of a ransom strip that would prevent me accessing a private estate shared drive.

 

At least the neighbouring plot owner has told me he is keen to assist in getting the error resolved even if this means him giving up the strip.

 

And the moral of the story to future plot purchasers is, don't accept a plot plan with a fat hand-drawn boundary line.

Edited May 14, 2018 by epsilonGreedy

[ProDave]

My solicitor was very hot on this when we bought our plot.

 

Firstly the paper deeds to the plot showed a hand drawn plan that had no definitive reference.  That was resolved by I believe it was a P5 report from the land registry who mapped the hand drawn plan onto the mapping system fitting in with adjacent land.  In any event a fuzzy metre or so boundary error would not affect the ability to build the house.

 

He also raised a potential ransom strip issue. Last time our plot was sold the road was a private estate road and it came with a right of access.  That is now a public road.  Our solicitor raised a valid point that if the public road had been built in a different position to the old private road, then it may be our plot finished before the road started.  That was satisfied by comparing old and new maps to confirm the public road is indeed exactly where the private road used to be.

[dpmiller]

Our solicitor likewise. And the new computerised LR system here is a bit of a nightmare apparently as the lines all "kinda" get superimposed.

[newhome]

Not quite the same scenario but I have an issue with my plot as noted in the Land Registry. It apparently takes up to 5 years for a plot to be registered up here. Existing houses are dealt with much faster I'm led to believe but have never bought a house here (Scotland). All of the paperwork I saw and agreed (from both my solicitor and the vendor's solicitor) related to the shared access to the plot (shared with next door and not in dispute) being the route over which Network Rail has a right of access. After 3 years the plot was formally entered into the Land Registry but the route over which Network Rail has right of access as recorded is very different from what was agreed. The recorded route takes in the corner of my garage as well crosses my parking area, when the gate that they want to gain access to is in a straight line from the main gate directly to their gate at the back of the plot. I have no idea how anyone can have dreamed up the convoluted route that has been recorded. So I need to engage a new solicitor at some point to see what went wrong in that process. I can't tell whether it's my solicitor who is at fault or the vendor's solicitor from any of the paperwork received but to take 3 years to register a plot is madness. The garage was built before the plot was even registered.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by newhome

[epsilonGreedy]

14 hours ago, dpmiller said:

Our solicitor likewise. And the new computerised LR system here is a bit of a nightmare apparently as the lines all "kinda" get superimposed.

 

 

My solicitor has mentioned the current 5 month delay in getting newly created plot divisions registered and published at the LR. My neighbour purchased his plot in November and the price data has only recently become public domain info, something to do with the new computer system perhaps?

[dpmiller]

NI runs a separate system (that isn't searchable online) and our solicitor has alluded to about a year wait to receive docs back complete.

[newhome]

5 months (England?) and a year (NI) sound much better than the 3 years it took in Scotland for my plot to be registered. None are really acceptable however as not many people are going to wait for the plot to be registered to start their build surely?