u/Adventurous_Yak_3402

We began the purchase of a ground floor leasehold flat with private garden in Feb. The lease came through and the garden wasn’t outlined.

We pointed this out to our solicitor who contacted the sellers solicitor. 7 weeks later we received a short email saying the seller confirmed it was a communal garden.

We then contacted our estate agent, he assured us he was told by the seller that it was private.

We are yet to see the conditions of the leasehold. We were told 2 months ago that it was being drafted up. I viewed the flat again yesterday and found the garden completely overgrown.

I emailed my solicitor today asking for more details. I’ve been told there are cases where a garden is technically communal but only you have access, some have said they had a similar situation but found amendments to the lease. I’m also obv concerned that other parts of the property brochure are not accurate so asked for some kind of document to outline exactly what I’m buying and the conditions of the lease.

i received a very rushed response saying she has the lease and that’s how she knows it’s a communal garden. She also said that any enquiry into this would incur legal costs. I thought that the point of a solicitor was to ensure all of this was in order?

Nothing else. I fell like that’s an underreaction to a huge discrepancy. Obviously I agreed on a price on the understanding that it was a private garden.

Why does everything take weeks to get a vague response? is it so impossible to know what I’m paying £300000 for!?

Really getting disheartened by the whole process. This is my first time buying and the whole process is baffling.

We couldn’t see this when we first viewed the property because the seller had wardrobes all along. we could see that there was some kind of plastic film with beads along the wall and floor. It did a good job of protecting his furniture but seems to have trapped damp for the 10+ years it’s been up.

Seller had a survey done that said the drain pipe in the last picture is the source of the damp and apparently an “easy fix”.

Waiting for our survey to be done, but how bad is this looking? it’s spread into the next room. Skirting board was like weetabix.

Its been sat empty (with the furniture) for 6 months so had no heat or ventilation through winter.

Hi everyone,

We‘re first time buyers purchasing a 2 bed ground floor flat. The property was advertised as having a private garden. it’s leasehold so obviously we wouldn’t own the garden - but use was private to us. the patio doors in the living room lead into the garden, and there is a side gate with a lock on it.

Our solicitor has just been informed that the garden is actually communal.

we’re really devastated by this. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with people having access so close to our house. it was in the brochure and on all websites that it was a private garden. we’ve already spent quite a bit of money on the process.

What can we do?