NEIGHBOUR CROSSED THE BOUNDARY BEFORE EXCHANGE

This is what happened with our friends years later. They sent a letter initially but had too much going on at the time. The neighbours put a garage on the 10ft deep they took and new fence.

When they were sale agreed my friends struck with a letter to their EA.

They got their land back, had to take down the garage, new wall and a hefty reduction in price to their buyers.

They were absolutely furious....which was such a lovely bonus.

why? She owns the land. The issue will be for the neighbour when they come to sell. I would simply insist that when they sell they move the fence back.

That just kicks the can down the road, though. Sorting things out when OP comes to sell could be trickier and take time that she can’t really afford.

This is potentially good advice (and marries with what happened to us in a similar situation). If the second solicitors letter (which should also mention that the CF will need to enter into a boundary agreement to confirm the boundary is where it ought to be) yields no joy then a third letter will warn that barristers are about to be instructed and costs will amount to circa £50k each, with the losing party liable for both sets.
long story short but our CF opted for a boundary agreement over the risk of monumental costs (because he knew he was wrong)
Only problem with this is costs of legal tooing and froing. And of course you need a strong mental constitution.
The big advantage for OP is that it signals you’ll take no future sh£t.

I wouldn’t register the new boundary at all. Just leave as is. The OP is happy with the fence moved, they just give a licence to the neighbours to use it. It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that.

But that would just inflame the situation. @MummyToBeAgain1 has got a good price reduction and just wants to live in peace.
The neighbours know what they did, as does OP.

Boundary surveyor
Discussion with neighbour
Serious letter #1
Serious warning letter #2
Move fence if they havent

Spend the 10k that way = bonus of no more CF from neighbours

Had friends who did same. Fence had been moved several years. All good now

I understand why you felt you had no option OP.

It sounds as if no one dared to ask CF neighbours to take down their fence? Obviously you couldn’t do that as you don’t legally own it yet - I mean any of the other parties.

It’s a huge shame that the CF neighbours have essentially screwed the family out of money. A price reduction for you is right and fair, but it’s the sellers who lose out not the guilty party.

I would really struggle to have any kind of amicable relationship with them, knowing they’ve deliberately taken advantage of a grieving family.

You say you just want to get the new boundaries registered, post-completion, and draw a line under this. I’d probably approach the CF neighbours once you’re in and tell them that you’re aware they moved the boundary while the property was empty, and that you’re in the process of getting land registry updated to show it’s legally theirs. I might also tell them that the sellers had to reduce their price to reflect what they’d done.

The reason I’d tell them is that it shows you are full aware of their shenanigans and that you aren’t a pushover. Just in case they ever think of trying anything else when you aren’t looking - if you’re away on holiday for example.

You be polite and friendly about it - after all, you’re just letting them know as a favour, right? It just sends an unspoken signal to them that you don’t let CFery slip past unnoticed.

There is more too this than we currently know. I would bet my life on it. I wonder how bad these neighbours are. Have they got a huge history of being CF and the sellers, having delved into this realised it was better to give some money off the price than to go through any legal process.

I stand by what i said earlier. Whatever discount they gave, double it and you still got a poor deal. I hope i am wrong but no one selling a property walks away from it by giving money off unless they really have no choice.

Excellnt post, Helen1625, and espoecially the first paragraph

Basically the sellers have accepted a reduction in order to pass the problems onto someone else, and depending how long the place had been for sale they may have had little choice

It also occurs to me to wonder if this was partly the purpose of auctioning it, so that the buyer would be quickly "locked in" before any dispute came to light

The main thing that would bother me though - having got away with this - is what else the folk next door might try. Clearly they're not honest and decent people, and frankly I'd want better neighbours

The OP has already been fully compensated for that. That argument is between the current owners and the neighbour. It seems that they have chosen to let it go.

I would ask the neighbour for costs to register the new boundary.

I do not understand giving up actual property that you rightfully own.

Well, the OP doesn't own it yet. Possibly the current owner sold it to the neighbour, or allowed them to take it as they had been neighbours to their parents. They might have assumed the OP wouldn't notice.

It sounds like such a small strip that there might be no need to update the deeds. The boundaries aren't usually that precise on the maps.

Hopefully you got a nice big discount OP.

I would never take that kind of risk. Good for you that you can afford to.

MummyToBeAgain1

I suppose on the bright side, there is now a sturdy, hopefully nice looking fence, paid for by your neighbours, albeit on a bit of your land…and you have your dream house to live in. xx

This is a very strange resolution. Not what I expected at all.

It might be prudent to find out who the current insurance is held with and stay with them for continuity… I foresee future issues with the your CF neighbours.

The quality of the fence and difficulty moving it isn’t your problem, it’s the CFs’.

I do not understand giving up actual property that you rightfully own. To thieves. It seems incredibly passive.

The sellers cannot stipulate that you cede to a third party part of the land you legally purchased.

All of this weeks of faff basically accomplished nothing other than a price reduction. The boundary dispute still exists.

It's no problem if you don't intend to take it back, but you DO need to work out exactly what has gone on, and you don't seem sure at the moment. Has the land been sold to the CF (for a nominal fee)? have the sellers given an license to the CF to squat on the land? are you legally obliged to update the land registry post-sale (i.e. has this been written into the sales contract)? has the process already started at the land registry? could you do nothing for now, and then in the future when you have the appetite start the process to get your land back, etc etc? You need to know the exact position of the property you are buying before you sign the contract.

Without knowing, you have no idea the implications of this moving forwards which could affect the value of your property - for example lots of us here are super cautious and would not buy a house whose boundary was different to that shown on the title deeds, or (even if the boundary was updated in the CF's favour) got a whiff that this was achieved through a land grab. It reduces the pool of buyers for your property, thus affects the value.

"The day you buy is the day you sell"

I don’t think you should change the land registry either. But I do think you should give the sellers a few quid back when you have established ownership- nothing like the full amount of the price reduction, just a gesture, they were had

How much was the price reduction as a percentage of the price of the house?

Change the land reg to reflect what you own- DO NOT add the strip you lost to the neighbour.

In future, the seller could use the strip against the CF neighbour, or let it cause them trouble when they want to sell and the docs don’t match up.

It isn’t your place to add the strip to the neighbour’s plot. Simply to remove it from yours.

OP's had a hell of a 6 weeks or so. Land grabs are an absolute nightmare to resolve and very difficult to win as the injured party. She kindly updated with the pragmatic resolution and she's had pages of people telling her to ignore all the legal stuff she has been sweating over for weeks, pocket the money and kick off the whole dispute again. This could easily cost her many thousands, and make her house more difficult to sell to boot, potentially without a very high prospect of winning, and return her to high levels of stress about her own home for many months.

Yes it's shitty, no it's not fair, and no I don't think I'd want to live next to these people either. But the vendors have still realised a lot of money from the sale and OP has still bought her dream house with a still large garden. They have picked pragmatism, and I imagine they now know a lot more about the legal process and what is practically, economically enforceable than most of us on this thread now.

Congratulations OP. Enjoy the dream house.

I’m pleased you have come to an arrangement you’re happy with.
I think however, that you’re being incredibly naive and this will come back to haunt you. This will not be the first incident choosing to live next door to these CFs
Good luck in your new home 🏡