NEIGHBOUR CROSSED THE BOUNDARY BEFORE EXCHANGE

Or actually - just death.

Was the any chance the neighbours saw you taking photos today? 👀

I suggest that the vendors or there representative need to get The Police round for a potential criminal damage charge.

That will sort things out sharpish - I Hope!

OP may never have to own up to flagging the land grab…the relatives, estate agent, or solicitor (during land registry or Google Images searches) could all have easily flagged the change in boundary…

Indeed. Most houses will have had life lost in then and quite a few life genuinely born in them.

Unless you’re buying a new build then the chances are someone has died in a property at some point 🤷🏻‍♀️ Hardly creepy-just life!

Off topic but did the previous 96yr old owner die inside the property? That would spook me right out.

I would still buy.

At this stage you are not the owner so any dispute and associated costs are with the owner. They will want this sorting.

We sold my late father in laws property in September last year. He was a hoarder on a large plot of land, in the middle of nowhere, it took us 4 years of back breaking work to get it ready for auction. The day of the sale, the owners of the neighbouring 120 acre woodland moved a boundary fence and stole goodness knows how many metres of land. We had to declare this at the auction and lower the reserve on the day to get rid of it, which thankfully we did but at a significantly reduced price. It cost us several thousand pounds to get our land back and the fence line was rightfully restored. We had exchanged contracts on the day so didn’t actually have to get involved but we felt it was the right thing to do to sort it out for the new owners, it was unbelievably stressful and has caused so much bad feeling. I feel for you and hope you resolve without too much stress.

@TheWolfHouseYou don’t need to do any of that drudgery! Just go to street view on google maps and click ‘See more dates’

I'll echo what others have said.

1. It's not your property yet. Don't speak to the neighbors directly
2. Speak to the solicitor as you have done. Auction or not, you are about to buy a house as set out in the description, not one with less ground.
3. I would be clear as things stand your wouldn't proceed as there is now less land. This needs to be resolved by seller with neighbours 1st.
4. I would ask for auction fee to be refunded given the above.
5. Even if the boundary is replaced (at no expense to you), I would think long and hard before proceeding given how the neighbours are.

It’s an auction property. They’ve basically agreed to buy it!

In fairness the vendors may genuinely not have known, if this CF left his "alterations" until they'd cleared out for the last time

That said, with someone like this I'd be surprised if it's the only issue there's ever been, so yes there could easily be something else they've not mentioned

So keen to know how this one turned out and fingers crossed it all in your favour op, sounds a right nightmare. So bloody cheeky.

I remember my parents falling in love with a house years ago, it was a semi, the house they viewed belong to an elderly lady who had passed away and the house joined to it was her daughter. It had a really big beautiful garden. Upon a second viewing my parents found the daughter next door had fenced off a large chunk of the garden for herself. They didn’t go ahead with buying as they didn’t want a dispute 😔

I wouldn’t want to live next door to them.

I'm so sorry OP I know you love everything about it but bad neighbours will ruin it all. Think very carefully about whether you go ahead. It isn't just a case of getting this sorted and moving on if it turns out they have stolen it. It impacts your enjoyment of the garden, going to and from the house, having guests over, going on holiday.
A Lovely house in a lovely location will feel like nothing when you're dealing with CFs.

What if the siblings ARE the neighbors?

joke, ok?

Wow they thought they could widen their access the back garden by just sneakily taking some of your land? They are CF's of the highest order!

I would be fuming OP, as I’m sure the sellers will be too when they find out. I wonder if they know the neighbours well, things could get very awkward. If they are spread all over the UK, the last thing they want is to have to come back to the property and sort this out, I’m sure they are thinking ‘only a week or so and the house will sell and we’ll get a nice juicy lump sum.’ Little do they know a shitstorm is about to erupt.

Boundary disputes can be a real nightmare. There is a website called Garden Law which has forums full of people battling with their neighbours over boundaries. It’s similar to Mumsnet in that there are plenty of helpful knowledgable posters but also plenty of snide posters making stupid comments.

They aren’t going to put it back quickly, that’s an almost impossible task now they’ve disposed of everything.

They have gained a whole side access, A 21 metre path! Lovely. I’d honestly start preparing myself for disappointment here. These are not decent neighbours.

Concur with your theory. They have definitely tried to pull a sly one.

As others have said OP this is not the property that was advertised when you paid the 10k, so your solicitor will have a field day with this one.

FYI - that side of the boundary wall is ours which has been confirmed by the seller.

Great. That makes it simpler. Now the seller just has to sort it out with the neighbour before you'll exchange. It's not your fight.

@MummyToBeAgain1 its now going to cost the neighbours even more!! they will also have to reinstate the garden wall to the way it was. that wont be cheap!!

Do not talk to them , do research on whether there have been any neighbour disputes, let your solicitor sort out boundary dispute and that you want financial compensation for the shrubs/plants cut down and dispised of that were belonging to the property you are buying and the fir demolished wall and they are paying to have wall rebuilt to your specs along the correct boundary