Communal car park query

Cazzums

Hi all, I intend on buying a house. It is part of a block of 4 town houses and to the front is a communal car park and enough space for 8 cars. On receipt of my contract, the car park is essentially not owned by anyone and the seller has stated he will not be keeping the car park and the 4 buyers must insure the communal car park between them. Is this possible to insure a car park between 4 different buyers? Also if the car park is not actually going to be owned by anyone what complications can arise? The seller does not wish to keep the car park and receive maintenance fees from the buyers and the council are also not responsible for the car park. The entire plot was bought by the seller and the 4 houses were rented out so the car park was maintained by the landlord previously. However now the houses are being sold individually what precautions can I take for the car park area? Solicitor is not happy to sign off on the sale when the car park is not legally owned by one individual or a maintenance company. Sorry it is very confusing! Thanks in advance!

BryanF

Approach other owners and set up a management company? This is not my area of expertise, but Surely your solicitor should be advising you?

Cazzums

BryanF wrote: »

Approach other owners and set up a management company? This is not my area of expertise, but Surely your solicitor should be advising you?

Thanks for your message. Unfortunately no one has moved in yet due to the lock down and I can’t get their contact details due to gdpr. Solicitor Finds it bizarre as no one technically owns the land of the car park so isn’t sure what to do. Would it be the norm to insure a private car park?

Would it make more sense to sell 2 spots each?

It won't resolve the maintenance issue of the entire area but without that, what's to stop one person hogging the spots?

JustAThought

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

Would it make more sense to sell 2 spots each?

It won't resolve the maintenance issue of the entire area but without that, what's to stop one person hogging the spots?

the whole set up sounds totLly surreal. Who will own the land? there is also nothing stopping the legal owner putting 24/7 pay clamping out there and your house will be a nightmare and unsellable.worthless. It will also cost you a fortune. Someone trips in the land ‘you’ insursn- next year it will be uninsurable. What is your solicitor advising - or if they are not, why not? I’d walk away from the sale - the while thing sounds entirely suspect and a dark hole of problems. There is also nothing stopping the owner selling it on and a house or worse appartment block being built on it - and there will he nothing you can do to stop it.
You cannot insure land you do not own.
You have no rights to use land you do not own.
Owner has already implied he is not interested in managing the land for car parking - so get him to sell the 2 spaces outside your house to you or walk away from the sale. Get the other 3 to do the same.

Cazzums

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

Would it make more sense to sell 2 spots each?

It won't resolve the maintenance issue of the entire area but without that, what's to stop one person hogging the spots?

I had suggested that but seemingly the issue isn’t around parking. They are concerned that as the car park is not owned by one buyer and is communal that god forbid someone fell in the car park who would be responsible. I’m struggling to resolve the issue of getting the car park included in all 4 contracts for the buyers and maintaining it ourselves and equally paying insurance for it but apparently 4 different owners can’t insure one area and the responsibility needs to lie with one owner which isn’t possible.

JustAThought

that nonsense - people all over ireland park on private estates outside their houses that do not have driveways - get the land outside each house included in the deed of sale for each house - then park your car there or make it a garden. someone is feeding you a pond full of lies and complicating things - for all you know that land is already sild to a developer or car parking company who will make millions off it over your lifetime as they have done all over Ireland by introducing 24/7 parking charges. Are you going to pay a management company 10 or 20k a year to manage your 2 or 8 car parking spaces outside your house? Ifs an insane situation. Your solicotor should be telling you to walk away from this - or are they so idealistic and out of touch that they have no usea what is going on in celtic tiger estates and the scandal and insane stress of allocated car parking and of un regulated management companies who simply are a cartel of builders and their mates who operate in plain sight beyond the law ..

Cazzums

JustAThought wrote: »

the whole set up sounds totLly surreal. Who will own the land? there is also nothing stopping the legal owner putting 24/7 pay clamping out there and your house will be a nightmare and unsellable.worthless. It will also cost you a fortune. Someone trips in the land ‘you’ insursn- next year it will be uninsurable. What is your solicitor advising - or if they are not, why not? I’d walk away from the sale - the while thing sounds entirely suspect and a dark hole of problems. There is also nothing stopping the owner selling it on and a house or worse appartment block being built on it - and there will he nothing you can do to stop it.
You cannot insure land you do not own.
You have no rights to use land you do not own.
Owner has already implied he is not interested in managing the land for car parking - so get him to sell the 2 spaces outside your house to you or walk away from the sale. Get the other 3 to do the same.

Many thanks! The owner has suggested all 4 buyers equally own the land and equally responsible for insurance of same, however, the legal team is still not happy with this as what if one neighbour decides not to pay up or maintain their share. Surely if it is bound in a legal contract they would have to pay and maintain accordingly along with the other three buyers? We had suggested the current owner keep the car park under agreed contract (ie no paid parking or clamping) and we the buyers pay maintenance fees to him annually for upkeep and insurance, however, this was declined initially. I don’t think the owner had thought this was going to be an issue as none of us did.

JustAThought

hi! What is wrong with him/her - sell the land to each of the buyers attached to their house deed purchase and register the land sLe with the house sale - why is s/he f’ing around and teying to make it so impossible and arsey and legally complicated and unworkable practically? Is there something wrong with his deeds of ownership that prevents him breaking up the land or does he not want the cost of doing it or does s/he even own the land or have the authority to sell? If sounds like a nightmare. Face him off in this - it is not rocket science and it is incomprehensible why s/he is trying to make it as unworkable and difficult and inoperable as they are. There is something seriously wrong with this. Your solicitor should be digging and advising you to walk away.

It's this case of 8 spots in a closed driveway with one entrance? There's a house near me like that. The owner built in his side garden and made one large driveway for both houses.

Always looked messy to me and I wouldn't touch a house without private parking included. This whole thing of shared parking causes more issues in estates than it's worth. Neighbours in each other's spaces, visitors, blow ins and so on.

Friend of mine bought in a private estates with shared 'private' parking and then a few years later council houses spring up across the road but with no parking included. Now it's like a trench in a war zone over the parking spaces

silver2020

Surely its a simple legal transaction for the owner to set up an OMC (owner managed company) and transfer the open space into that. The 4 homeowners would own the omc and pay a set fee into it each year.

Public liability insurance would be very important - eg, if there was a small hole and a delivery person tripped on it. If there was no insurance, you could be liable.

The insurance would not be more than €400-€500 per year.

All it needs is a little effort and a little cost by the current owner and their legal people

sydthebeat

if the seller doesnt want to keep the car parking spaces... then why arent each house for sale with 2 spaces each???

i cannot see why in gods name the seller of the land is the one who is insisting on future owners setting up a management company to control 100 sq m of car park space.