Neighbours clash Loughborough

Acting for the prospective buyers of a freehold house in Loughborough, Leicestershire, the Fridaysmove specialist Conveyancing Lawyer in Loughborough Mary Spiteri-Panayi revealed that there had been a dispute between the property owners and their neighbours regarding the position of the boundary between the two properties – The archetypal suburban property dispute, and precisely why Local Conveyancing can be so helpful to a potential buyer.

"What should I do?"

The sellers had mentioned this disagreement in their replies to questions on the property information forms which vendors are generally required to complete. They often ask their Solicitors whether they should give this sort of information, as it might well put buyers off. However, they will usually be advised to give truthful answers, because not doing so could potentially give rise to a claim for misdescription (under the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991) if the buyer becomes aware of the problem after completion.

It simply isn’t worth taking the risk, as you can be sure in circumstances such as these that the buyer almost certainly will become aware of the issue!

Although you will often read that on house sales the general rule is ‘buyer beware’ (or caveat emptor if you are a latin scholar), if a buyer is given misleading information by the seller may be liable for damages if the buyer relies on that information. In this case the sellers had come clean and mentioned that they had previously had a ‘bit of an argument’ with one of their neighbours about the precise position of the boundary. There is an old adage that good fences make good neighbours, and any Conveyancing Solicitor will tell you that arguments about boundaries are a common source of litigation, so any Conveyancer acting for a buyer will want to ensure that his client is not buying into a potential lawsuit.

Further enquiries revealed that in this case the dispute had been settled, and there was now no problem with the neighbour, so the purchase went ahead without further difficulty.

The Loughborough office of Spencers, one of the longest established agents in the Leicestershire area, handled the sale, and the Solicitor acting for the sellers was Loughborough firm Douglas Wemyss.

Fridaysmove Conveyancers in Loughborough can deliver the same degree of fast, cheap and conscientious service to you – Call us on 0330 660 0286 for a quote today!