NEIGHBOUR CROSSED THE BOUNDARY BEFORE EXCHANGE

@usersldjfksdoi

If the vendor gets an injunction they’re not going to have it rectified within 56 days. Their only hope of having it sorted in the timeframe is if the neighbour puts it right at the first instance (seems unlikely).

I bet the neighbour believes it’s their land and has taken this opportunity to “reclaim” it.

Thanks for saying what I said a few pages back in more words and with less accuracy.

Your comprehension skills are somewhat lacking. It's not what you said and you said it wasn't urgent and you are still saying go through the agent which makes no sense. The agent has a vested interest in doing nothing and not relaying the information at all in the hope that late discovery by the vendor will mean the OP will just go with the sale anyway and think they have to sort it out.

There is no benefit in OP’s solicitor jumping up and down, you don’t need to be on the roll of solicitors to make a phone call. OP’s solicitor simply needs to be alert to the fact.

OPs solicitor is acting for them. The agent is not.

It's not about 'jumping up and down'. It's about emphasising the urgency and having a written record of the time and date the information was received by the Vendor. It is urgent because of the completion date advantage to OP and mostly to the vendor in case they want an injunction. In this situation a week is a long time which makes it urgent.

fingers crossed but chase chase chase!

This sort of situation is just too messy for criminal law which requires establishing criminal intent. There’s too much room for people to claim they thought it was their land, they thought it was their wall, they thought they had permission, etc.

There’s no way for the criminal law to effectively deal with these sorts of disputes so the police will back away from them and tell you to see a solicitor and use civil law.

What about the wall they demolished as well?!

Have you driven past since @MummyToBeAgain1 ? Just in case the neighbours have any other devious plans and are actively pursuing them. Good luck and agree with all those who said to keep the pressure on those who are responsible for sorting out the mess.

Yes I missed that and agree it warrants a response.

Thanks for saying what I said a few pages back in more words and with less accuracy.

The agent is better placed to speak to the vendor and deal with it. OP’s solicitors only task is to relay information to the otherside, which not only can the agent do, but can remove a link by speaking directly to the vendor.

When you are juggling a busy case load this might be pressured, but it is not critical, unlike other matters such as completions that day. Once the message has got to the vendors - it’s their problem. There is no benefit in OP’s solicitor jumping up and down, you don’t need to be on the roll of solicitors to make a phone call. OP’s solicitor simply needs to be alert to the fact.

The vendor’s solicitor, conversely, can assist (if they are appropriately experienced and not mere conveyancers) in helping resolve the actual issue at hand.

Just to add - it is an agents job to liaise with both parties and manage the non legal elements of the sale. Passing a message over is precisely that.

This! ⬆️

@AlwaysCoffee25

you are completely wrong on both counts. It's urgent for the reasons I said - the completion date creates urgency. Once that has gone, there is no urgency which legally leaves whoever is stuck with the problem in a weaker position. If OP is still keen to buy, that completion date urgency is a good lever to motivate the seller to sort it out with the aim of keeping the completion date. When people are doing things that enroach on your rights are changing the status quo, it is always urgent because the longer you leave it, legally the hard it becomes to persuade a court that the original way should be kept in place by an injunction until it is resolved.

The agent is not better placed to deal with it because it is literally nothing to do with them. Clue is in the name AGENT. The agent is just an introducing agency. The legal rights in play and the people who need and can resolve it are between first the current owner and the landgrabbing neighbours and then second the the current owner and the OP who is buying. It is open to the OP to buy anyway which the agent has zero control over.

Me too! I would have gone and challenged the CF neighbour about WTF he was doing, or making sure he saw me taking pictures of the theft/new position and damage so they knew they'd been rumbled! 😡

It’s not urgent and the agent is better placed to deal with it.

I'd say that could easily exceed £10000. Which would also involve an incredibly stressful year, or longer.

I agree and it would probably be more. It's why its so important to get the vendors to deal with it now.

The vendors are highly motivated to sort this because they want to sell it.

If the neighbours are unreasonable, if you are in a situation where you have to go to court, there is (assuming OP is right and this is a land grab and there isnt some right to the land or something that gives the neighbours a right) a good case for an urgent injunction because it's a new change, the vendors want to sell and there is the agreed completion date. There is a lot there to persuade a judge to grant an injunction and you have good grounds to go urgently.

Contrast this with after the sale, there is now no urgency because the purchaser has come to the situation with eyes open so you are into normal litigation and a normal neighbour dispute. It's much more likely to drag on.

I spent more than that on a legal fees with similar dispute that we didn’t start because the neighbour was unhinged - and that was after including a reduction on the legal bill because the solution was one I suggested at the very start. It mounts up incredibly quickly - and that didn’t even include anyone coming to survey the boundary.

Another way to look at this is if the OP moves in without this problem being solved, and the neighbours won't cooperate (and putting to one side that this could easily end up result in a toxic situation), then how much would it cost to enforce legal rights through the courts?

I'd say that could easily exceed £10000. Which would also involve an incredibly stressful year, or longer.

I think I might pull out. It’s an awkward start to neighbour hood life

would give the solicitor some grace as Fridays are mad with completions.#

I completely disagree with this. This is an urgent situation. It requires action the same day. If the solicitor can't do it herself, she needs to delegate it to someone else. At the very least, the vendors solicitors should have been formally informed even by phone call immediately.

Except the solicitor has had since 26/03, a week and a half ago, to respond and has been given plenty of reminders. She can't use the "Friday" excuse for all the start of this week!

I literally can't believe this thread. It's madness.

This is what should have happened. The minute you found this out you tell your solicitors.

As a matter of urgency - meaning THE DAY YOU TOLD THEM - your solicitors should have written a letter to the vendors solicitors setting out the facts and saying as you can see we have a number of legal problems here (1) the neighbours have damaged and destroyed property (plants etc) that was part of the sale (2) purported to move the boundary line. My clients have an agreement to buy X [agreed land and property]. The position now is that [subject to what you want] your clients need to re-instate the boundary line immediately either by agreement with their neighbours or obtain a injunction ordering that to be done. This needs to be done by [date] because of the agreed date of completion. If this is not done, then one of two situations will arise, either your clients cannot complete because they are not selling the same sized property that was agreed or your client will significantly need to reduce the price and agree to indemnify my client for the costs of litigation against the neighbours and any compensation. [they would never agree an indemnity, but its just to underline the scale of the problem].

Then the vendors solictors also acting urgently tell the vendors and get on the case.

The vendors (if they know the neighbours) speak to them in the flesh and go 'WTAF put it back you maniacs asap' otherwise we will sue you to high heaven and get an injucntion because we need to complete by x day.

The crazy neighbours either agree to put it back or refuse.

The the vendors either have to sue them and get a court order or decide not to bother - which then means you either agree a new sale price to reflect the changed property or pull out.

Whatever the position , this is not a 'I'm on holiday' 'I'll get back to you next week' kind of situation.

The main thing to understand is that the vendors who are the children of the person who lived there before are in a much better position to deal with the neighbours now for all sorts of reasons (including the fact that as it stands you have no title) than you will be after completion. The pressure of the sale is something that can be used to instill urgency with the neighbours and possibly get a court order. Once that goes you have a much bigger problem because the urgency goes.

I'm not saying that they will but they might as clearly an offence has been committed.

There is clearly an element of luck involved, also of course its the sort of thing that can trigger a feud which they may well want to nip in the bud

Just let the vendor take the first steps OP. Don’t take ownership of the issue. Let them figure it out. You’ll just tie yourself in knots and contradictions if everyone goes in all guns blazing.

Not even daylight shrubbery?

This sort of sh’t happens more often than you’d think. I outlined down thread what happened at the end of last year just as we were about to sell. But I’ve just remembered a year earlier we were trying to buy somewhere which was vacant. But neighbours reported suspicious activity on the property and filmed another neighbour chopping a tree down with a chainsaw and pouring weedkiller all over the garden. We went for another viewing (having made an offer), just to survey the damage and it was appalling! And because there was criminal damage the police WERE involved. We withdrew our offer. Nutters!

The police aren’t going to get involved over shrubbery.