rogerzilla
Legendary Member
House is beautiful, has 1.5 acres. At an early stage I downloaded the title from HMLR and saw a covenant that it can't be sold without permission from three members of the xxxx family, who sold it to the current owners/vendors in 2017. I asked the agent to find out from the vendor why this covenant was there.
The agent never did find out but we realised one of the vendors' maiden names was the same as the three people named in the deeds, so assumed it was an interfamily sale at a reduced price and it was to stop them flipping it. We made it clear that this covenant had to go (deed of release) when making our offer.
The vendors took six weeks to instruct solicitors. Last Thursday our solicitor received the full deeds and found the covenant is there so the three named people, who are not actually related to the vendors, can make any successor in title sign up to a particularly greedy (and appallingly drafted) overage agreement lasting until 2052. The vendors hadn't told the agent anything about this, which is verging on fraud since it materially affects the desirability and value of the house - it's just about unmortgageable, for a start (we're cash buyers).
We're not that bothered about the overage, as the land will be developed over our dead bodies, but we have told the agent that we are not buying the house with the "permission to sell" requirement in place. It will be extemely hard to trace all three of the greedy beneficiaries. It only takes one to be difficult/senile with no PoA, and the house is effectively valueless as it can't be sold.
We are doing the sensible thing, aren't we? It transpires the vendors also vacillated before buying it and did so against expert legal advice (the advising solicitor suggested many changes to the then-new overage agreement, which were never made).
The chances of the beneficiaries agreeing to waive their rights and release the owners from the covenant are, we think, zero.
The agent never did find out but we realised one of the vendors' maiden names was the same as the three people named in the deeds, so assumed it was an interfamily sale at a reduced price and it was to stop them flipping it. We made it clear that this covenant had to go (deed of release) when making our offer.
The vendors took six weeks to instruct solicitors. Last Thursday our solicitor received the full deeds and found the covenant is there so the three named people, who are not actually related to the vendors, can make any successor in title sign up to a particularly greedy (and appallingly drafted) overage agreement lasting until 2052. The vendors hadn't told the agent anything about this, which is verging on fraud since it materially affects the desirability and value of the house - it's just about unmortgageable, for a start (we're cash buyers).
We're not that bothered about the overage, as the land will be developed over our dead bodies, but we have told the agent that we are not buying the house with the "permission to sell" requirement in place. It will be extemely hard to trace all three of the greedy beneficiaries. It only takes one to be difficult/senile with no PoA, and the house is effectively valueless as it can't be sold.
We are doing the sensible thing, aren't we? It transpires the vendors also vacillated before buying it and did so against expert legal advice (the advising solicitor suggested many changes to the then-new overage agreement, which were never made).
The chances of the beneficiaries agreeing to waive their rights and release the owners from the covenant are, we think, zero.
