PROPERTY LAW
NEED TO KNOW BASIS
I have bought a house but I haven’t received a ‘property information form’. Should this have been shown to me by my solicitors? Under the standardised conveyancing procedure, the seller’s solicitor should have asked his client to complete a property information form. This is an important document, and the seller will normally be bound by the replies he gives. The seller’s solicitor should have sent the completed form to your solicitor before contracts were exchanged. A solicitor acting for a buyer will not automatically copy the client in on the form, but the solicitor must report any adverse information disclosed by the form to the buyer. Ask your solicitor what happened to it.
LAND ISSUE
My husband built our bungalow in the 1960s. We have deeds to the land but not the building. Do we need anything more? What will happen when our daughter inherits the property? As long as you own the land you will also own the building on it. In fact most title deeds describe the location of the land with scarcely a mention of the house. I suspect that your bungalow isn’t registered at the Land Registry. It will certainly help your daughter deal with your estates after your deaths if you apply to register your bungalow voluntarily at this stage. But if you don’t, then as long as your title deeds are kept with your wills, your executor (who could of course be your daughter) will be able to arrange to register the property in her name at a future date.
SOCIAL CLIMBER
Six years ago I needed to repaint the end wall of my cottage and I had a problem getting my neighbour to move two large sections of trellis work he’d fastened to it. Now the work needs doing again. Can I insist that the top half of the trellis isn’t replaced this time? It reaches right up to the level of the roof. Yes. This is not a ‘party wall’ as defined by the Party Wall etc Act 1996, so unless there has been an express agreement that he can do so at some stage (any such agreement would need to be examined to see if it is still valid and subsisting) your neighbour shouldn’t be fastening anything to it. If your neighbour is difficult to deal with ask your solicitor to write to him. But if you have a reasonable relationship I’d be reluctant to fall out with him over this; an alternative might be to suggest he repaints your wall, say every five years, in return for keeping his trellis.
SPRING LOADED
If my neighbour’s trampoline was to blow out of his garden and into mine, or on to my car parked in the street, would I be entitled to claim for any damage it caused? Almost certainly: it would be a foreseeable accident, and your neighbour should have taken steps to anchor the structure to his lawn or turn it upside down to prevent it taking off. If you are aware that the trampoline is preparing for lift-off you should warn your neighbour, since it’s likely to be easier to prevent the damage than to actually get your neighbour to pay for repairs. If an accident did occur, your neighbour may have an insurance policy which would cover payment for any damage.