Betraying a trust
Q. My father died five years ago, leaving his house to his carer until her death or until she left the property. At that point the house was to be sold and the proceeds divided between myself and my brother and sister. We now learn that the carer has left the house and her daughter has moved in.
A. If the carer has indeed left the property the trust set up by your father’s will which allowed her to stay has come to an end. The trustees of the will therefore need to take action to evict the daughter and sell the property, distributing the proceeds between you and your brother and sister. It’s possible that one of the trustees of the will is a solicitor, in which case you should contact this person. Either way the trustees need to be notified to get the ball rolling.

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Family plot
Q. My parents owned a house which was demolished in the 50’s. As far as we know they retained ownership of the land, since about 20 years ago they got a letter from the council offering to purchase the plot, which they declined. My parents have since both died, and the only documentation we have is the original mortgage documents. We know where the land is, and wonder how to go about obtaining the deeds.
A. You (or the executors of your parents’ estates) will have to apply to the Land Registry to register the title. There is a procedure for doing this which involves providing as much information about the ownership of the property, and the loss of the original deeds, as you can muster. The original mortgage documents are a good start. I suggest you ask a solicitor to help you with this, since you will have to make a statutory declaration and identify the plot on Ordnance Survey map. It’s possible you will be granted “possessory” title to the land (where the evidence supplied does not establish the history of the title beyond doubt) but you would still be able to sell the plot in these circumstances. If someone else has been using the land for a long period of time though it’s possible they will now be able to claim ownership.

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Not a brick laid
Q. My daughter put a deposit down on a new-build home at the beginning of the year, and was told it would be ready in between six to nine months. So far not even the foundations have gone in and the builders are saying it will be “some time next year”. My daughter has exchanged contracts, but her mortgage offer runs out in October. Can she pull out at this stage?
A. Probably. Hopefully your daughter engaged a solicitor to check the builder’s contract and it contains a clause stipulating a timescale within which the property must be ready. If there is no such clause it may be more difficult, but the law says that contracts must be fulfilled within a “reasonable” time. The suggestion that the house would be ready within nine months, even if it was made verbally, will nonetheless form part of the contract and your daughter could potentially sue the builders for the return of her deposit after this period. I suggest she discusses this with the builders now.

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Spring cleaning
Q. In December last year we moved into a property whose owner had used a home exchange/chain break company to sell her property. We discovered that the water had been turned off and the central heating system had been drained, and there were notices advising that the water supply should only be reinstated by a qualified plumber. Since it was evening we turned on the supply and had leaking radiators, a leaking water tank and water came through the kitchen ceiling. It cost us several thousand pounds for a new boiler and new radiator. Can we claim compensation from the seller?
A. You should go back to the solicitor who acted for you in buying the house to find out what assurances you were given about the condition of the water supply and the heating system. These questions are normally raised in the Property Information Form. It’s possible however that you in fact bought the house from the home exchange company, which may have declined to complete the form, or left it incomplete. In that case your solicitor should have warned you to ask your surveyor to check these points in detail. So you may be able to claim compensation from either the vendor, your solicitor or your surveyor, if negligence was involved. However you are unlikely to be compensated for the damage caused by turning on the water supply against advice.