[Dans]

Hi all,

Hoping I am posting on the right board. We're hopefully in the process of buying our smallholding in England. The house and land look in really good condition. We're not getting a mortgage at the moment  (very kind step-father lending to us until we sell our current house) so no-one is demanding a survey, but we would like to get one. We know about home buyers reports and buildings surveys but are there any special surveys for smallholdings or for land?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Dans

[JTFarms]

Dans not sure about in England but here in the U.S A. you can get what is called a boundary lines survey done it will show how many feet from each corner,easements across your land that someone else hold the. right to use in length and width in feet of said easements.public roads right of rights etc.... Hope this helps.  James

[JEP]

when you go to sign make shaw the land is what you are getting
a house owner near us signed & purchased house and found out after
they dont own the garden they signed the forms to say thats what they wear buying
and now cant sell it

[john and helen]

  Hi Dans….yes get a survey and get all the searches done…even though not everything comes up

i have found with my augar, whilst digging the holes for posts , a nice big chunky telephone cable..it happens to be not used…which is good for them, as i went straight through it 

when we nearly bought the place in carmarthen, the next door neighbour came out swearing her head off about walking on her land…it turned out , she was right…the entrance to the property actually belonged to her..the farmer forgot to tell us that bit… 

good luck with the new place..exciting times 

[Thyme]

Use a solicitor with experience in conveyancing for agriculture as well as for homes.  They will know how to check field boundaries, land registry, rights of way, water rights, grazing rights, fence responsibilities... all the stuff you might not have thought of but that could turn out to be critical.

[honeyend]

We had problems when buying our small farm, all the solicitors used were useless and I would spend a bit more money and go for a proper agricultural solicitor even if they are not local.

 Our land had not been registered properly with the Land Registry and was still owed in law by the previous owner although some of it had been sold to someone else, two solicitors not doing their job, so it all had to be done together again. So check the entry on the Land Registry and the plan. Make sure the solicitor registers the transfer.
 Land Drainage Rates, never mentioned.
 SFP, never mentioned, the previous owner claimed it and it was not sold with the land.
 Our neighbour gets his water from next door, all in the deeds, the supplier of the water has just cut it off and decided she doesn't want the electricity board to supply him so will not let them on her land. So try and find out where you services come from and go, if it goes over someone else's land is it in the deeds and have there been any problems.
  Septic tank , water treatment, is it registered, never mentioned by solicitor.
 You may think some of these do not apply but its best to try and find out everything before you want to sell and it holds up a sale.

[paddy1200]

Talk to the NFU, they can advise you on an agent to  use.

[Dans]

Thanks guys. We already have a conveyancer, though now I am wondering how familiar they are with agricultural properties. Will be asking them a fair few questions based on this thread!

Thanks again

Dans

[Possum]

I agree with previous comments. You must use a solicitor that knows about agricultural boundries, shooting rights, public footpaths etc. I'm not sure that an ordinary house conveyancer would have the right sort of experience. Whereabouts in England are you buying?

[Dans]

Thank you all.

Bit of a nightmare, turns out our solicitor has now had 2 letters 'go missing in the post'. The draft contract and our certified ID documents. No acceptance that it could be an issue at their end, simply 'either the letters weren't sent or they got lost in the post'  . Utterly lost confidence in them.

Does anyone have any recommendations on an solicitor familiar with agricultural properties? We're buying in Lincs but we are based up in Scotland and would be happy with one that wasn't local to the property if they came with a recommendation.

Dans

[Thyme]

Hopefully someone will have a more specific recommendation, but I've been told by some friends who are very high powered solicitors that the Legal 500 is an excellent way to find a good firm.  For example http://www.legal500.com/firms/471-brodies-llp/offices/4520-edinburgh-scotland/profile covers agriculture.

[Thyme]

Oh just realised you are actually buying in England.  In that case I wholeheartedly recommend http://www.mjjsolicitors.co.uk/ -- my purchase was very messy including discovering part way through that the sellers didn't have title to some of the land, which led to it being a three way transaction at the end!  They also were very good at working long distance as I was in England and buying in Wales -- we did nearly everything by email.  Adrian Foulkes was the solicitor.