Dodgy Builder, Dodgy Lawyer, Dodgy Neighbour!

[Klink]

I have recently moved into a house which was bought at auction. My parents paid for the house outright with a hefty loan from the bank and now myself and my partner are living in it with the view to buying it around Christmas time.

The house was reposessed from the builder who had built the whole estate and had subsequently been living there (in our house) with his family.
We were advised by our lawyer that according to the plans, the back of the garage encroached by 3 feet onto land owned by a neighbour(despite the boundray fence between both our gardens being behind the garage).

However, the price was so good that we decided to go ahead anyway.
We have been in the house for a year now and are sorting out the lagalitys in order to arrange a mortgage and have discovered that the lawyer did not have the deeds drawn up in time and therefore the house is legaly owned by the crown now. Does this sound correct?

The lawyer is claiming that its nothing to worry about and that we should just pay the £2500 to the neighbour so that he can get proper deeds drawn up and we can get a mortgage on the property.

Im beginning to think however that he is panicking because he has made a major error and the quickest way out of it for him is to wrap the case up as quickly as possible.

What I should add is that the neighbour whos land we are encroaching on is not the neighbour directly behind our garden but in fact the neighbour two doors up from him. According to our lawyer , this neighbour owns a huge chunk of land that forms an L shape around two neighbours gardens and extends to the border with ours. This I thought was strange as the estate is only 5 years old and all the houses are identical. I have recently discovered though that this neighbour with all the extra land was a good friend of the builder and I am now beginning to believe that something underhand has went on.

Basically I need to know if I have any recourse against the builder or my lawyer or if in fact the neighbour has me over a barrel eventhough he has been quite happy to live with the current situation for the last 5 years?

If it wasnt for the fact that my parents need me to mortgage the house by Christmas I would be happy to tell the neighbour where to go. Any advice is most welcome.

Thanks.

[Klink]

Have just noticed that I failed to mention that the neighbour is looking for £2500 to sell us the land. I offered him £1500 which he refused.

[JustinN]

Are you saying that the title to the property was not properly transferred to your parents? If so, the conveyancer who acted for them should sort this out. In default, instruct another solicitor to take over, sort out the problem and claim the cost of doing so from the first conveyancer

[JustinN]

Or are you saying that the encroaching area was to have been bought in addition but was not? If that is the case, why was that purchase not completed?

[Klink]

Originally Posted by JustinN

Are you saying that the title to the property was not properly transferred to your parents? If so, the conveyancer who acted for them should sort this out. In default, instruct another solicitor to take over, sort out the problem and claim the cost of doing so from the first conveyancer

Yeah, apparently because he has dithered around since my parents paid for the house, the property is now legely owned by the crown. Does this make sense? Whats your thoughts on the encroaching land? We were aware of the encroachment before we moved in but £2500 seems excessive for 3 feet of land.

[JustinN]

The only way in which the property could be "owned by the Crown" is if, between the sale and now, the seller (being a company) had been struck off the register (or similar), in which case any assets it owned would fall to the Crown

However, assuming there was a Transfer deed signed when the sale took place, it should be a simple matter to register that now, to put things straight

As for the land that the garage encroaches on, that is a separate issue (buying the land will not somehow automatically resolve the first problem); as to whether £2,500 is an appropriate sum to pay, it is cheaper than defending a court action and ending up having to pay compensation anyway (or, in a worst-case scenario, having to demolish the garage)

I hope this helps