Deal breaker?

It is a rocky road we have been walking and just before the sun is about to break over the hills, we come to our last hurdle. They say it is always darkest before dawn and this is no exception.

All my searches have now come back on the property at Wesley Road, everything is in place and ready to complete other than the drafting of the TP1 form that states the land rights of our property and the back ot the garden that the vendor is retaining.

Apparently, the current vendor has said to my solicitor that she wants to use the retained land as garden however, she wants to retain the right to do what she will with the land in the future and she wants the TP1 form to state this.

My solicitor has said that he would not advise me buying the house under these circumstances and he is trying to get her to agree to putting a covenant in place. This would mean that any future changes to the land would have to be agreed by both parties (her and us). It would outline restrictions on the height of any proposed building and also purpose, thus avoiding the potential scenario of her building something that would negatively affect the value of our property. It would also mean that in the event of her deciding to sell the land on that any future owner would have to discuss plans with us too.

On one level, it feels 'a bit rum' to have to do this as the property is hers and on one level she should be able to do what she likes with it. However, she has proved herself to be far from trustworthy, what with her constant threats to 'pull out' of the sale, so i do not trust her at all. Of course, normally when you buy a house, the boundaries were set at the time of the house build so none of this kind of thing usually matters, however it is very different when land has been newly divided and when drafting a TP1 form.

So, this is it.
If she won't agree to a covenant, then we will have to pull out. I would rather lose £1,000-2,000 now than get a mortgage for over 100,000 on a property that could be worth half that at some point in the future. As far as i can see, no solicitor would advise their client to buy a house under these circumstances, so the vendor is going to have to decide if she really wants to sell the house or not.

We shall find out this week.