Family unable to sell house as ‘corner of living room’ doesn’t belong to them

A family has been unable to sell their house for two years due to a bizarre land dispute.

Linda Hoffman, 73, discovered that around 400 square metres of land at her property in Nottinghamshire doesn’t actually belong to her, including the corner of her living room and parts of her garden.

Linda and her family have been left in limbo for two years after finding out the news in March 2021, much to their surprise, Nottinghamshire Live reports.

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They have tried in vain to discover who actually owns the rest of it, but cannot find any documents which prove who does.

Linda’s son, Bryn Hoffman, explained that his dad passed away in April 2020 after Covid first struck, his mum then started looking for a bungalow closer to his home in Gedling.

“A bungalow came up and it was stunning, perfect location and round the corner from me. We put the house on the market and got a buyer, and it was all going through,” he said.

“Then it popped up through their solicitors that there’s a section of the land that doesn’t belong to my parents which is the bank next to the road, the footpath down the side of the house to the bridge and the very edge of the house, the corner of the living room basically. Nobody knew, my mum didn’t know and my dad isn’t there to ask.”

Linda said: “Thankfully I’m a strong person but it’s just draining. I was ringing the land registry day for a month and every time I spoke to someone I got a different story.

“Why couldn’t they have just said they own it and this is how much they want for it. I’ve had to pay a lot of money for a solicitor.”

The family have say the value of the disputed land is worth around £1,000.

Linda described the process as “slow” and that she was originally warned by her solicitors it could take up to a year to sort, but now it is coming up to two years and there has been no progress.

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Bryn added: “It’s just been shocking, and an abysmal experience. There’s no reason that this couldn’t have been resolved before this.”

A spokesperson for His Majesty’s Land Registry said: “In 2021-22, we saw an extremely high level of property transactions as the property market bounced back after Covid-19 restrictions and stamp duty and land transaction tax holidays fuelled demand.

“HM Land Registry received around 1.8 million more service requests in 2021 than in 2019. That increase did affect our processing times, including the time taken to initially consider Mrs Hoffman’s application.

“We have apologised to Mrs Hoffman previously and do not hesitate to repeat that apology.”

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