PROPERTY LAW

with Paul Westwell Bromleys Solicitors LLP

ROAD TO NOWHERE

When we sold our house 15 years ago the builder had gone bust and hadn’t put in a proper roadway. I gave the buyers some money to cover this, but my solicitor objected and £1,000 was placed in an account under both solicitors’ names. The road still hasn’t been built and the house has been resold twice. Who can claim this money? IT’S likely that your solicitor will have agreed with your buyers’ solicitors the terms upon which the money was to be held. In all probability there will be some documentation to evidence this. You should obtain copies of your solicitor’s file to find out what the specific terms were, then, if appropriate, and if the money is still held in a solicitor’s account, agree with your buyers how the money should be paid out. An application to court to resolve this is unlikely to be cost effective.

SAVINGS SHARE-OUT

If a married couple have a joint bank account and one dies, does the account pass automatically into the name of the survivor? What would happen if the husband or wife made a will leaving his or her share to someone else without telling the other partner? THIS is surprisingly complicated. Normally control of the account would pass to the surviving spouse. However if (for example) the husband had put all the money into the account there could be a presumption it wasn’t to pass to the surviving holder, particularly if they specifically mentioned the account in their will passing it to someone else. His personal representatives in this case could lay claim to it on the grounds that the will gave sufficient evidence of his intention for the money not to pass to his wife. If both had contributed to the account the balance will pass to the survivor.

BLOCKED IN

A new neighbour habitually parks his car in front of our garage and we have to ask him to move it every time we want to get the car out. Is there anything I can do about it? The lane to the garage is a pedestrian right of way maintained but not owned by the council. You may be able to take out an injunction preventing your neighbour from parking there. I suggest you get a solicitor to write him a letter threatening to do this. With luck it will be enough to persuade your neighbour to be more considerate. It’s possible he has no right to drive a car down the lane unless he owns one of the garages: your title deeds should provide a clue to what the position is.

KNOCKDOWN PRICE

MY fiancé wanted somewhere to do up his car, so I agreed to let him knock down part of my garden wall so that he could get the vehicle into my back yard. This was on condition that he rebuilt the wall after the project was completed. We’ve now split up. Is there any way I can force him to rebuild the wall? If you can prove that you had the agreement with your ex-fiancé then you are entitled to recover the cost of rebuilding the wall. This is dependent upon your ex-fiancé being able to pay you. You then have two choices. You can either get at least two estimates for the cost of re-building the wall, and sue him on the basis of the estimated cost. Alternatively, you can actually pay for the rebuilding work and sue him for the actual cost. A solicitor’s letter demanding payment may prompt him into paying up without the need for you to go to court. »»Call Bromleys Solicitors LLP on 0161 330 6821 or visit www.bromleys.co.uk If you have any legal questions, write to Property Law, MEN Media, Mitchell Henry House, Hollinwood Avenue, Chadderton OL9 8EF, or email mail@ lawQs.co.uk