Right of access and property purchase

[cmac72]

We are buying a property and our driveway has access across it for one neighbour. It is the only access to their property and has been in use for several decades. We knew about it and have no issue with the arrangements. My solicitor is cautioning us against buying now as property requires first registration with Land Registry. No formal agreement exists but it's obviously the only means of neighbours access and doesn't affect us. Can an indemnity insurance policy help or maybe a statement of truth from current owners? Please help, we thought we were due to exchange.
Thanks

 

[a twig]

Not quite sure what you mean?

First registration is literally that - the property isn’t on the land registry and needs to be registered for the first time.

That would be a completely different and much bigger issue to a right of way / right of access across your land

 

[cmac72]

I guess what I'm asking is, does the existing right of access to neighbouring property make first registration difficult? The plans are not clear and no formal agreement of access seems to exist.

 

[a twig]

Caveat all this with I’m not a lawyer but just someone who has bought and sold a few houses.

Granting an easement to a neighbour during first registration isn’t complex.

Essentially when registering the property the area of easement and reasons for it are marked out on the plans / explained in the deeds.

Perhaps there is more to the story that I’m missing.

As an example near us, someone built a property at the end of their garden, then registered it with the appropriate easements for access down what had now become a shared driveway with the original house, then sold it

 

[cmac72]

Thank you for replying - that's kind of what I thought. Will (try) to speak to our conveyancers tomorrow and ascertain if that's it. They seem to be trying to get sellers to apply for first registration before we buy. I'm anticipating this could take ages and destroy our chain.

 

[Flyfisher]

First registration is not a complex process IF all the necessary paper documents and deeds exist to clearly prove ownership. Complications can arise when some or all of these documents are missing, in which case first registration can still proceed but will involve a statement of truth (ST1) and the registered title might only be 'possessory' and not 'absolute'. A possessory title effectively means that the title can be challenged by anyone with a better claim to the property than the documentation supplied by the first registrant. If the first registrant has lived in the property for ages then a valid challenge is obviously unlikely but Land Registry will still probably register a possessory title 'just in case'. If, after 12 years, there has been no such challenge then the title can be upgraded to 'absolute' on application of a simple form (UT1).

It might also be difficult to find a mortgage company that would lend against a property with a possessory title, though there are indemnity policies available to cover the risk of such a title being challenged. However, if the title was successfully challenged, my understanding is that an indemnity policy would only cover the financial losses involved in a challenge; you might still lose the actual property.

Obviously, the lowest risk for a buyer is to insist that the property is first registered by the seller and I'm not surprised the conveyancer has recommended this. It neeedn't take ages if all the paper documents are readily available, but it is a complication. My parents sold their unregistered property many years ago (as was commonplace at the time) and the buyer insisted they register it before the sale completed but it all worked out well in the end and the sale went ahead without undue delay, at least nothing that endangered the chain. But of course, all chains are different and what's possible for one might not be possible for another.

As for registering a right of access, or other forms of easements, that's also fairly easy AS LONG AS all parties are in agreement.