NEIGHBOUR CROSSED THE BOUNDARY BEFORE EXCHANGE

This is it. It isn't your problem to solve. The issue is that they are trying to sell you something that they have no access to. They need to sort this out.

It’s not just about the land grab. The CFs also destroyed established plants and bushes which were your property as buyer of the house. You need compensation for that as well.

@MummyToBeAgain1We’ve sold and bought many houses over the years, and I’ve been reading the tread with interest.
If I were you I would contact the seller direct, say it’s because you don’t think the solicitors (your and theirs) are acting fast enough. You need to check that they know what has happened. IME some estate agents are not exactly fast at letting you know what is happening, and solicitors prefer to do things by snail mail slooowly.

Glad to see you are being more proactive- you have to be”that” client!

I doubt the sellers know. EA doesn't seem to be taking this very seriously imo. They won't want the sellers to know there are useless. Days off indeed. No time for that!

including the auction house?

You have 2 priorities OP. To make sure the seller knows what's going on and that you view it seriously enough to put the sale in jeopardy.

You should be willing to threaten the seller with pulling out. (I realise you're against this but there's nothing to stop you making the threat so that the seller is galvanised into action.)

But to make things happen you really really need to be assertive and to push this continually.

They’re not selling with vacant possession. Someone is literally occupying part of the property subject to contract so I think you have good grounds to withdraw or allow them time to rectify. The other option is to accept you have unauthorised occupier and take the property on with a boundary dispute - which can soon get very expensive.

No-one. It’s not up to you to suggest how the sellers deal with this. It’s up to them.
The importing you need to do is make sure they and the auctioneer knows what is happening and that it will delay completion if not sorted pronto.

I'm not sure if this has already been said, but can you suggest sellers solicitior sends a letter to the neighbour thats basically a legally worded version of "Put it back as it was with 14 days and we won't report the criminal damage to our wall and bushes to the police"

I feel like that will propely movitave the CF neighbours, and as it's coming from the sellers soicitors OP should hopefuly be suffucently insulated from any ill feeling once they've moved in.

The vendors appear to be oblivious to whats happening.

If someone would just tell them, they'd probably have done exactly this by now!

I would be calling the estate agents/auction house today rather than emailing them. And if you don't get a decent response first time, call again, and again, and again. Make a complete pain of yourself until it's less effort for them to do what's needed rather than field calls and make excuses all day - remember the old saying "the squeaky wheel gets the oil".

When you do email the named contact, copy in everyone you can think of at the organisation especially managers, or if you don't have their details ensure it goes to their admin/central mailbox every time then there's no excuse of someone missing the email or being out for the day.

Yes but OP has done this I thought so I was suggesting some extra belt and braces as the deadline is set by auction house not vendors

If the solicitors were acting quickly, I'd agree, however anyone can send a Letter Before Action and a well worded letter to the effect of:

'we know what you've done, put it back or you could be in deep legal doo-doo'

can be surprisingly effective with some people.

Theres no law saying you can't write to anyone you like, and sending the above isn't illegal either, its factually accurate - if they don't put it back, they could be in the poo legally.

Be firm
stand your ground

you are not accepting any thing less than what was presented at sale & hammer

and if that’s not what you are getting, all of your ££ back, and your solicitor is not good making u wait & doing nothing

Just want add my suppport op.

Its awful how some greedy land grabbing CF's can cause such trouble. Hope karma kicks them in the balls

When you write to your solicitor again please write in the subject line “Urgent- response required today - boundary dispute” in caps and reiterate the same in the email. and if she doesn’t get back to you within today then email again copying managing partner from her firm (you can find it on their website) and be very clear how many times you emailed/called and have not gotten a response or an ETA. That should get her attention.

@MummyToBeAgain1 You have been given some good advice on the thread, but I would suggest you also post your issue on gardenlaw forum - there are lawyers on there who will be able to help - they may even provide you with templates and legal precedents you can use in your comms to the various parties involved.

maybe so but CHASE CHASE CHASE.

This, leave it to solicitors. They'll sort it for you.

I think the OP said this was a modern auction where completion doesn'r happen at hammer fall....in any case unless the seller knew about the landgrab and it is reflected in the legal pack, then the seller is in the position of having allowed a discrepancy between the lot and the legal documents.

you need to make it very, very clear that you won’t be completing until you’ve got your land back.

Assuming this is a traditional auction,You exchange straight after the hammer goes down…you pay your 10% deposit on the day and sign the seller’s pre-prepared contract you have hopefully read before bidding.