"We were approached about a section of unregistered land that was hindering the sale of a house. The vendors had built a garage on this land, and it had come to light that a small section was in fact registered to the vendor’s adjoining neighbour. The neighbour had not been approached concerning this area of registered land, but the potential buyer wanted clarification on this issue if the sale was to proceed.

The case had been declined by several other insurers due to the fact that the garage was built on land owned by someone else. The vendors were able to provide a statutory declaration claiming adverse possession, but as they had only lived there since September 2006, this carried little weight.

At Isis, we chose to take a practical approach. We agreed to cover the risk because whilst a section of land was registered to the neighbour, further identification revealed that the actual area of land in question was very small, and it would therefore have negligible value to the neighbour’s property value. Therefore, we provided a quote which was accepted and cover was taken up, allowing the house sale to proceed."

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