How’s this for a whole new level of cheeky fuckery - someone has token our allotment!

[YaMuvva]

Moved into our new house in January. Bought off a lovely lady who was a widow and something of a popular figure in the street (relevant).

We were pleasantly surprised to find that in the deeds it came with a garage across the road (which we’d seen at the viewing but it wasn’t clear it belonged to the house) and an allotment plot. We’ve actually been on an allotment waiting list for years so it was nice news.

We’ve already had aggro with the garage - when we got the keys we went to open it and found that it was rammed full of full boxes! I called previous owner directly as she gave us her number (as assumed they were hers) and she said she allowed our next door neighbour for years to use it. He was most put out when we told him to clear his stuff as we needed to use it. This was 3 months ago, and only last week did he finally clear it out, and only did so when we had to get shitty with him and say if he didn’t clear the garage we would do it for him (don’t want to get off an a bad foot with the neighbours but he was taking the piss).

Anyway we have never checked out the allotment before now (it’s not far about a 10 min walk from here) just because of time constraints and illnesses and crappy weather but decided to finally today go and find it as the sun is shining here.

Anyway, when we got there we looked on the sheet of paper we’d been given and found the plot - and a person sitting next to a full and lush patch sitting on a chair having a cuppa! There is also a shed full of tools coffee cups newspapers etc in it too . We asked the person if we’d got it wrong as we are new owners of number 8 on X Street and thought this was our new allotment.

Apparently she is our neighbour down the road (never yet met her) and yes whilst it is the allotment belonging to number 8, the previous owner (a “very dear friend” of hers apparently) let her use it, she’s been using it for 10 years.

My DH, still stinging from the garage debacle, said well I’m afraid your very dear friend doesn’t live in no 8 any more we do and we are reclaiming the allotment, thank you for looking after it but it is OURS to enjoy.

She bloody said no! And that she’s cultivated this patch for several years, she grows all her veggies here and it’s her sanctuary so if we want it we will ‘have to fight for it’! She also said she paid for the shed.

DH said that’s fine, expect a fight then, and we shuffled away in shock. I then rang the old owner and she said “Oh yes it’s Barbara’s plot really she was good to take it off my hands and it would be awful to take it off her”. To be clear - the plot has NOT been sold to Barbara.

I just can’t believe the piss takery of this. DH thinks we should just go and take down the shed, leave it at her front door and dig up everything and chuck it all in a bin.

I feel like the neighbours just took the piss out of the old owner and think they genuinely have a claim to the stuff she was kind enough to let them borrow.

Bloody title fail - TAKEN

Yikes! What a disaster! All my sympathies. This is going to go very badly.

You could sue the old neighbour for this surely, how was she not open about the use of the property during the sale??

Ugh old owner I mean

Following purely to see how this pans out. The cheek of it!!! I'd be LIVID.

Yes I would go back to the conveyancer. You assumed you took vacant possession.

I've never come across an allotment that is owned, vs rented from the local council or private firm? Is this yours, as in, you now own the land or have a permanent legal right to farm there? That's quite cool, if so.

It's not your fault but I feel for the neighbour actually. It doesn't really sound like she's taken the piss and if you spend 10 years working on a plot it can be bloody heartbreaking to have it all taken away. Especially without notice. The old owner should have absolutely prewarned them it was being sold. How cruel not to.

But, if it's yours by law then it's yours by law and they will have to shift. Be prepared for them to take everything with them (normal for allotments) - e,g, shed, wood for raised beds, plants etc.

That's incredibly frustrating. I wonder if Barbara essentially has squatters' rights?! 😳

If it was me I'd tell the person who sold me the house that I intend to sue her for failing to disclose that the allotment was being used or whatever a solicitor says you can argue.
Inconvenience, expense, all that stuff.
That should change her attitude for a start.

also see what the position is re the allotment. Can you just reclaim it or do you need to go down some stupid legal route to get your property back.

Does the allotment have a management committee?

I’d be firm and give her a deadline to take anything she needs or wants by x dates and then did the bugger over. I wouldn’t get into legal letters etc in case she tries to challenge it because of established usage. I’d just make sure it wasn’t available for her to use. Harsh as that may be.

@Gemstonebeach is right.

No way should you have reached the completion of the purchase without these things being clear. We've sold and bought within the last year and the questions that have to be answered are extremely detailed. There's no way any part of your property should be being used by anyone else without it having been made crystal clear in the seller's information long before now.

Sorry, the previous owner sounds like she's done a number on you - I'd sue the arse off her.

Contact the solicitor who handled your house purchase and tell them to sort it out ASAP otherwise you'll be reporting them for negligence!

Yes,simply do this

Sounds like a really difficult situation. I can see you appear to be technically in the right but maybe double check with your solicitor first. Maybe you could come to some compromise eg say you will take it over at the end of the growing season, or charge her rent. You sound busy and if you didn’t know about it before, how important it to you to do the work that an allotment entails? maybe actually using doesn’t matter as much as proving ownership? Maybe worth a solicitor letter offering her the choice of renting from you or removing her property by x date?

Did your solicitor not get you to check the title deeds before exchange? To ensure you knew exactly what you were buying and did they not make sure to ask the vendor for vacant possession?
Although this is the height of cf, I feel it’s going to get messy and costly.

How frustrating. I would be taking the old owner to court because she wasn’t clear that not everthing she was selling was actually available.

Then, I would tread wary with Barbara. You could offer to sell her the plot and make peace or you could fight for it but then i would worry she would sabotage anything you grow

What sort of legal documents to do have re: the allotment? All the allotments I know are just rented from the council or whoever and associated with a person rather than a property. It could be that x at no 8 had an allotment that she didn't want to use so let her friend use it so she didn't have to be on the list. And x still has it even though she no longer lives at no 8 but she has just assumed it goes with the house.

The garage thing, you really should have checked the day you completed, and I would have hoisted the stuff outside the door and changed the lock frankly.

I would go to back to the solicitor you used to buy the house and get written clarification from them even if it costs you for the letter. I would then post a copy of this to Barbara explaining nicely that you are the new owners and as such wish to now make use of the allotment you have purchased. I would be kind and give her (a month?) to remove all of the belongings she wishes too from the allotment.

Write to her and tell her she's got 2 weeks to take anything she wants from the plot and after that dig it over and leave any tools etc outside her house.

Allotments are usually council owned and do not pass ownership when a person moves house. You need to get in touch with the council and find out what the situation is.

The previous owner should have made sure the garage was cleared out before you moved in.

Allotments are usually owned by the council or the association that manage the site not an individual.

Exactly. That is what they are for! It's their job to verify all this prior to exchange let alone completion.

It's not clear that the solicitor has done anything wrong. If the seller lied when answering questions, it's on them. Of course quite possibly the solicitor has been negligent too if they didn't do everything correctly- but ultimately it's on the vendor to provide honest information about particular issues

Put it in the hands of the solicitors, who can hopefully take the bad blood out of it. Though I suspect even if you win and claim your rightful garage and allotment, you’re not going to become part of the neighbourhood community any time soon. What a clusterfuck.