Problems with neighbours over an access road

[Charliesangel2009]

Sorry, if this is a bit long, but if anyone with legal or land registry knowledge could help, I?d be really grateful.

We have an issue with a couple of (very aggressive and territorial) neighbours.

To the side of our house is an access road to garages for the houses on the adjacent street, our side garden gate and to some allotments at the end.

Up until recently one of the neighbours from the adjoining street has parked a massive mini bus on the access road, up against our house. We?ve just let this go, because we only moved into the house a year ago and we didn?t want to upset anyone (despite him TELLLING us on the day we moved in that that was his parking space and the he owns the land ? he doesn?t).

Because he?s parked there and no one has maintained the ground, a huge buddlei tree has grown up near the front of our house, along with a huge area of nettles ? which has attracted all sorts of rubbish being dumped there, too.

The neighbour has now retired and so the mini bus is no longer there. So at the weekend, my MIL (who was staying to look after our DS while we were away) decided to take the axe to the tree/bush to prune it right back. She also sorted out the nettles.

This has evoked absolute fury from Neighbour A. Aside from the fact that he reversed his car at speed at her to intimidate her, he spent ten minutes screaming at her that it?s his land, that she had no right to be chopping back the tree/nettles. He then went to get Neighbour B who said the same; that they owned the land leading from their garages up to the side or our house.

We have checked again with the land registry and NO ONE owns the land, but I?m worried that they can do something to claim the land. I just want to move now because I don?t want to live somewhere near people like that (particularly a man who threatens a 67 year-old woman), but we can?t afford to do that yet. They were talking about contacting a solicitor, putting a fence up so that they can ?claim? the land, etc.

Gah! We don?t care who owns the land. We just wanted to let light back into our house by chopping back the tree, and to get rid of a patch of stinging nettles/dumped rubbish from the side of our house.

Ironically, given that the neighbor has had a huge mini bus parked there until recently, it would seem the problem they have is that if we clear the area, other people will park there.

Sorry again for the length of this?

[1dayatatime]

Contact a solicitor pronto and if possible register a claim to the land yourself. Of you are worried about legal fees check your house insurance to see if it covers legal costs.

[Charliesangel2009]

Thank you for the advice. I fear a solicitor may be the only option...

[fridayschild]

It will be hard for them to claim ownership based only on parking. Squatter's rights/ adverse possession usually requires an intention to exclude the rest of the world, and driving on and off the land means that sometimes your minibus is off the land, and therefore the rest of the world are not excluded from it.

Can you check with the land registry when your part of the country became subject to first registration? If you are in Suffolk it is quite recent, so your neighbour might have unregistered title. That's getting unlikely as time passes but it would be foolish to rule it out. If you're in London, unregistered land probably doesn't have an owner.

You could check the title to the garages to see who granted them a right of way over the access. That might lead you to the true owner.

However this sort of issue rarely has a nice legal answer. I'd see if you can get a lawyer to give you some initial meeting free before taking the case on, and get their views.

[sneezecakesmum]

You can look online at land registry for a couple of pounds I think? I did something like this in the past to look at boundaries between ours and our neighbours land.

Our neighbour annexed a small plot of land next to his house, it belonged to no one and he just registered an interest and fenced it off. He said he could do this legally as no one had objected!

My BIL did something similar as the boundaries were unclear and a court said he could keep it as it wasnt clear on the deeds. (council took him to court btw)

Talk to a solicitor who specialises in land disputes as it can be complicated. I am very very hazy re the rights and wrongs of the above instances but just saying what happened.

[Sandalwood]

How long have they been using the land to their garage?
There's a prescriptive right of way thing after 20 years of use that I don't understand much about, but might be worth looking into.

[Charliesangel2009]

Thank you all. The most frustrating thing here is that we're not looking to 'claim' the land. We don't even want to park there. We just don't want it to be a tip. That's what they want because they say that no one will park there if it's overgrown with weeds, nettles, rubbish etc. Which is true, but they don't have to look at it every day (it's at the back of their houses, side/front of ours). So frustrating/annoying/depressing.

[Collaborate]

They might well own the land if it is still unregistered. Someone must own the land, so it's not true to say that no one does.

You have no right to cut down a tree and do gardening on someone else's land (though if you want to do some tidying at mine you're very welcome!) but if you have concerns it's becoming a tip then perhaps Environmental Health at your local council might be able to help.

[sneezecakesmum]

Get in touch with the local authority in case they have a claim on the land. The last thing you want is the nasty neighbour to claim 'unwanted' land and have a permanent tip to look at. I would imagine you could object to them claiming it??

[Fizzylemonade]

There may be some info on this if you also post on gardenlaw.co.uk on their forum, maybe under their ROW (Rights of Way)

However, I would caution you when it comes to contacting a solicitor. Have a very good read of the gardenlaw website with boundaries/fences/trees/general topics and see how bad things can get. You don't want to poke a bear.

As someone who just about survived a boundary dispute with the neighbour from hell I wish someone had pointed out gardenlaw before we contacted a solicitor. After all it isn't the solicitor who has to live next to/near that person.

Like you we wanted to move, so should have just kept our mouths shut, as we were totally unprepared to deal with the torrent of verbal abuse that we endured for years including abuse aimed at my children, and you would think the police could do something but alas no. Bullies often play the victim card.

We eventually sold the house and we live in relative peace but you have to declare any dispute you have with neighbours and if you a solicitor writes a letter to your neighbour and you don't declare it you can be sued at a later date. We declared all of ours but we had an amazing solicitor and we also sold to investment buyers who rented our property out so it was no issue to them as they weren't going to live there themselves.

It would massively put off any buyer if you start arguing about the area via solicitors etc. I mean if you viewed your own property and the owner told you about the crazy man down the street would you want to buy it? There is a reason why there is the saying "buyer beware"

Good Luck!