Neighbours extension encroaching into my property

I am in the process of buying a house and my surveyor came to me with the fact that next doors extention encroaches into "my" garden by 4" of brick work and 2" of overhanging felt from the roof. Looking at the build, I think it's been up a fair number of years and more than likely they have only used cavity blocks, which if I have be told correctly I won't be able to build against.

The previous owners of the property I'm looking to buy are deceased so I can't check if there was an agreement made at the time of the build.

My problem is, could this cause problems for me if/when I go to sell on? Has anyone else been in a similar position?

Please help, because it's now decision time as to whether I continue with the purchase or bow out!

If you inform your solicitor of the surveyor's findings, I believe s/he may advise against purchasing, which kind of eliminates the potential selling problem, if you take the advice.

kar mba

The encroachment of the build may have been an established agreement with the previous owners with regard building on the property line where a 'party' garden wall has been replaced by the wall of the extension.

This does not in any way exonerate the trespass of the gutter / felt overhang which would need to be treated differently if you were to future build against this.

If you proceed with the purchase and in the process you solicitor overcomes the problem, by changing the deeds to reflect the property line, then you should have no issue into the future. If as mathepac suggests, you end up not buying, it won't be your concern.

If the problem can be dealt with and the record corrected, this should not be a future problem.

As for building against the wall, it wouldn't be advisable directly on the hollow block, but nothing is impossible there are ways of dealing with this.

Thanks Sconhome. In view of what you mentioned about changing the deeds to reflect the property line, would this just take in where the extension is, or would there be a need to move the boundary wall to align it with the wall of the build?

The changes would take into account the situation as it is now and would you update the record showing the agreement on the property line, which can have a step in it reflecting the overhang.

The exact process I can not be 100% sure of and you would best seek advice from the solicitor in this regard. It would involve remapping the property and lodging with the land registry office the change in details. How easy or how inexpensive the process is, I have no idea.

Thanks for the advice! Lots of food for thought there!