A FAMILY can’t sell their home after finding out they don’t own a corner of the living room and part of the garden.
Linda Hoffman, 73, has been trying to sell her house for two years but when a buyer finally popped up, it was discovered parts of the property isn’t theirs.
2
2
She and her husband bought the land from neighbours in 2000 and built a house three years later.
When Linda’s husband died in April 2020, she and her son Bryn Hoffman decided to list the home when they found a place she could live near his place in Gedling, Nottinghamshire.
Bryn said: “A bungalow came up and it was stunning, perfect location and round the corner from me.
“We put the house on the market and got a buyer, and it was all going through.”
But lawyers for a potential new owner discovered part of the section isn’t the family’s to sell.
He said: “It popped up through their solicitors that there’s a section of the land that doesn’t belong to my parents which is the bank next to the road, the footpath down the side of the house to the bridge and the very edge of the house, the corner of the living room basically.”
The family believes the market value for the piece of disputed 400 squares metre of land is about £1,000, Nottingham Post reported.
Bryn added: “It’s just been shocking, and an abysmal experience.
Most read in Money
“There’s no reason that this couldn’t have been resolved before this.”
Linda says the whole ordeal has been extremely frustrating and she’s only just managing to cope.
The family had no idea the area who owns the land after their application for adverse possession was rejected.
She said: “Thankfully I’m a strong person but it’s just draining. I was ringing the land registry day for a month and every time I spoke to someone I got a different story.”
A spokesperson for His Majesty’s Land Registry has since said during 2021-22 there were a high number of property transactions which led to an increase in processing times.
They said: “We have apologised to Mrs Hoffman previously and do not hesitate to repeat that apology.
“HMLR cannot proceed with an application until it complies with the relevant statutory formalities. Unfortunately, the initial delays were exacerbated by defects in the applications originally lodged on behalf of Mrs Hoffman. These meant we had to cancel some of the applications and request replacements.
“The replacement applications have since been submitted and considered by HMLR. Mrs Hoffman’s applications involve adverse possession, which is a highly technical area of law. Consequently, once the applications are in order, HMLR is bound by certain statutory timeframes.
“We cannot deviate from these. We have also received an objection to one of the applications.
“When we receive such an objection, we cannot complete the application until the dispute has been resolved.”
It comes as a homeowner told of the hell of being unable sell her house as her neighbour owns half of her bedroom.
Samantha Sweeney, 45, was stunned to learn 90sq ft overhangs the shared driveway between their houses.
Samantha, an insurance worker, says Persimmon Homes did not point out the boundary line quirk when she bought the semi in 2006.
She said: “It’s disgusting. Persimmon should have sorted it then. The fact they also recommended the solicitor they now claim ‘missed’ this stinks.
“Persimmon have sold the land to my neighbour, then built my house and sold that portion of the land again. That’s not on.”
