On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 11:57:59 GMT, DJC
wrote:

lynd wrote:

My neighbour moved out rather strangely back at the end of November ,
having done a flit ( old lady house-sitting told me they had gone on
holiday).
I never saw the house up for sale or anything but suddenly in January new
neighbours knocked on my door and introduced themselves as the new
neighbours.
They were pretty vague about the last owners and even about themselves.
First they said they were renting, then they said they owned the house.

Now I know there might be an error but its strange because the house was
also sold ( oddly) back in 2002 ( old neighbours moved to France). They
"sold" suddenly after having the house on the market for three years!

If there is a mortgage involved then any charge or change thereto will
be noted on the land registry documents. I suggest checking with the
official land registry site rather than these online house price sites,
they are derived from the LR data but do not tell the whole story.

Certainly the LR entries give the best level of information, but don't
give everything that might be useful - for example the amount of the
mortgage or of other charges.




If
there is a company as owner similar check of the online records at
Companies House may be revealing.

That's also true, but information is usually scant. There is a period
after the financial year end for filing of accounts and annual return
(10 months IIRC) and so information is not very current. Also, small
businesses of less than several £M in revenue or balance sheet total
do not have to file detailed accounts. Forming much of a picture is
difficult. However, you can easily get the names and addresses of
the directors and company secretary together with how many other
directorships they hold.

This information is cheaply available from their Webcheck service
(less than £5).

You can do checks in the opposite directions (e.g. look up a list of
companies for which a person is a director. This is a way to get a
view of more of their business activities. However, being a director
does not necessarily imply an active role in a company. Also, it's
necessary to be a member of the Companies House Direct service
(£5/month subscription) to access it.

Changes in directorships appear quite quickly on the CH web site.




We live up a private ( unadopted) lane and I have to repair my own section
of lane. large numbers of visitors to alpaca haven would cause me great
expense.

Covenants regarding upkeep of the lane should be in your and the
neighbours deeds also. Again the records at LR would be the place to start.


They are to a point, but may not have detail of some covenants - e.g.
not driving herds of goats along the lane, not running a business and
so on.



--

..andy