A bizarre legal mix up has meant Chris Meyer has been living in the wrong home for six years.
Chris Meyer had been selling his three bedroom apartment in Carlisle, Cumbria but has discovered that his apartment in Willow Court is actually owned by his next door neighbour.
Mr Meyer was planning on purchasing his dream home with his girlfriend, but now it seems impossible. They put the apartment on the market three years ago for £80,000 and received an offer for £76,000 but due to the mix up the buyer has pulled out of the sale.
It turns out that Chris actually bought number 9 when he thought he was purchasing number 8 and the person who thought he purchased number 7 actually owns the flat Chris is living in (number 8). It’s the same for 10 of the 15 flats.
The flat that Chris actually owns is rented out which causes further problems for the couple. The whole mix-up has left them stuck as the Land Registry will not allow anyone in the block  to sell without every owner of the flats’ approval to rectify the problem. To make it even worse, some three years later, the correct owners still seem to be ignoring the letters.
The Conveyancing firm used by Chris when he bought ‘his’ flat, Burnetts, have told him that he should have checked the documents before he signed them and that he should have got a solicitor. Chris said “I paid them to do the conveyancing so that nothing like this would happen. That’s why you get a solicitor for these things.â€
Nick Gutteridge, Manager Partner at Burnetts said that they’ve helped Mr Meyer in many ways such as liaising with the other property owners and their lenders.
“We are very clear that responsibility for checking the title report was with Mr Meyer.
“We have gone above and beyond in helping Mr Meyer and it’s very disappointing that he’s chosen to raise a grievance via the newspaper.â€
The problems are still ongoing and Chris is doing what he can to sort it out – including involving his local MP – so he can move on with his life, both literally and figuratively.