Roger is buying a Cottage that he viewed last week called "Woodlands" which is situated in Cheshire and is owned by Barbara John and Josh. Barbara has been one of the owners of the property for around 15 years and has renovated it over this time. Title to this property is registered. The asking price for the property is currently £475,000. Roger has put an offer in for £455,000 which Barbara has now accepted. Barbara informed Roger last week there was another person viewing the property called Rachel. She was also interested in buying Woodlands and wanted to make a higher offer of purchase to Barbara. Barbara decided against accepting the offer when she heard that Rachel still had another property to sell. Roger's Solicitor has discovered that the property was purchased by Barbara and her 3 brothers John, Dylan and Josh together 15 years ago. John was made bankrupt a few months ago after a few disastrous investments and Dylan sadly died around 1 year ago and had left his share to his wife Rebecca in his will. Roger's Solicitor has also discovered that in 2017 Barbara and her brothers split the land in two parts and built a second property called 'Pastures' which they leased to Elizabeth for five years. 

Shortly afterward Barbara and her brothers agreed that Elizabeth could: i) Use the garden shed of the Woodlands to store logs for her wood burner; ii) Use the driveway belonging to Woodlands at all convenient times to gain access to her garage. Last year Barbara and her brothers renewed Elizabeth's lease for a further 5 years. A few weeks ago Barbara had an argument with Elizabeth that she had left no room in the garden shed for Barbara to store anything, as it was full of her logs. Barbara has told Roger's Solicitor that she has now forbidden Elizabeth to store her logs and has said that Elizabeth cannot use the driveway of Woodlands. 

A week after contracts are signed and exchanged, there is a terrible storm and the cottage's thatched roof is extensively damaged and burnt when lightning hit the tv aerial and caused a fire. Roger's Solicitor has also discovered from the plans that part of the back garden Barbara has been using actually belongs to the registered property to the rear of them but Barbara said when they first bought the property there was no fence dividing the two properties just a bit of barbed wire, so she erected a nice fence herself and may have taken a little bit more than she was supposed to. Barbara said that Josh has been using it to plant his potatoes and organic veg!

 

Please answer the questions below. You must provide one correct answer to each question. 1) Which one of the following would you advise Roger in relation to insurance for the damage caused to the thatched roof? Please answer A, B, C or D. a) The risk has passed to Roger under SCS 5.1 as he has exchanged contracts. b) The risk remains with Barbara as Roger hasn't yet completed and moved in. c) Roger can refuse to go ahead with the purchase as the property has been damaged. d) Neither party is responsible for the insurance as this is an act of nature and therefore the council has to pay for the cost of damage.