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.

She was rude to OP and her husband while sitting on her land sipping a cup of tea.

When someone has used land as their own for 10 years they can claim adverse possession. You need to get it confirmed in writing that the use was with the owner's permission - then they cant claim adverse possession.

Unless you want to be hated by all your neighbours you will work to agree a fair settlement - so you let Barbara harvest her produce this year and take possession later or you agree a payment for the planting.

Basically terrible boundaries with zero respect to us and because they were all in their 70's and 80's they felt they had some say over us because we were young

Oh yes, I have experienced this too, it's unbelievable. Neighbours much older than us telling us that the previous owner let them do xyz so therefore we should too, even though it made our lives more difficult. One neighbour told us we couldn't put up a fence within our own garden boundary (perfectly legal for privacy) because the person who lived there before didnt have one and they had agreed they should both be able to see in each others gardens- why I have no idea. We did it anyway and she stopped talking to us which I considered a win. Thankfully, a few years later she had to move as she couldn't afford to live there any more. I bought some champagne that day and we toasted her departure 😉

Neighbour should have tidied all this up when she sold so she's done you no favours, nor her neighbours who seemingly didn't know, or did and thought things would tick along.

I've never heard of a privately owned allotment plot. I'm a gardener and have had an allotment, and can see why Barbara would be gutted to lose it after a decade of cultivation. Not your fault of course and you have rights to the plot. You could offer her to see out the growing season ( but be strict with a month of eviction in writing or she'll grow perpetual spinach or keep cutting chard and stay forever) as a gesture and give her time to get on another list? Or look into evictions now as either way tbh that relationship won't be salvaged.

If they hated me for claiming my own property, my response would be "good riddance."

Yes indeed. What a piss taker: collapse the shed and hire a digger.

The rest of the neighbours know it too.

It is the owners responsibility to clear the property and give vacant procession.
So the owner, before completion, should have had the garage cleared and told Barbara to vacate the allotment.
Technically that hasn’t happened and if anyone has to deal with this it is the previous owner and entirely at their own expense.
So OP I would contact the previous owner and their solicitor and ask them to deal with it. Vacant means vacant!
At the moment you’ve paid for something you haven’t got.

Would it be worth trying the Council maybe? That would clarify the position .It seems odd to me .The Solicitor has slipped up badly as well. Also speak to him too

Someone will be along to park on your drive next OP, sounds like this woman had quite a few informal agreements

How is it the solicitor's fault?

You need really rock-solid legal advice here.
Im not sure the allotment neighbour is really taking the piss; she’s just continuing with an arrangement as it hadn’t been made clear to her that it would be changing. Personally I’d like to find a more amicable solution than digging everything up, if possible.
Garage neighbour was taking the piss, although you did let it drag on a bit too long.

Unless you want to be hated by all your neighbours

If people are going to literally hate you for simply wanting to use the property you have bloody paid for then I wouldnt give shit if they hated me. Hate away. I dont care as people like that are not people I'd want in my life or to spend time with anyway.

Not if they have permission from the owner.
Adverse procession is without permission ie squatting .
I claimed adverse procession on a house in London years ago, the owner was unknown and no permission given

Apologies that was for @anyolddinosaur

The lady at the allotment could claim adverse possession if she has proof she's used the land unchallenged for 10 years.

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
Noooooooooooo
Wrong

Let those with adjacent allotments give up part of theirs to Barbara if they feel so strongly about sharing one's property rights.

Bet they'd quickly change their tune.

No, she can’t. You cannot claim adverse possession if you have been using land with the permission of the owner. She had permission. So she cannot try an adverse possession claim. The owner has changed, and she doesn’t have permission anymore. Off she pops.

Poor Barbara is taking all the flack for the previous owner's stupidity. None of this is really Barbara fault. She probably thought the allotment was rented, so as I said earlier, she may have had no reason to connect it to the house sale.

The previous owner however, clearly wimped out of telling her and garage guy (who had less excuse) that the house sale would end their cosy agreement.

I can understand Barbara's total shock in that case, and her panicked defensiveness. I'm not sure why everyone's railing at her instead of the previous owner, who has no excuse whatsoever for her actions, or lack of.

Also are the deeds old? You'd be better off looking at the current online title register for the allotment as it could have been sold years ago.

Maybe. But I reckon she's unlikely to have to done very much to prove there was an arrangement and there is now a new owner. If I were OP I would get legal immediately given the attitude

Barbara should have been preparing to lose the allotment as soon as the house went up for sale.

I wonder what the previous owner actually said to her.

"Take it off my hands" does sound as if she has been given it!

Perhaps she mistakenly thinks that she has been?

Actually I think I’d be asking your solicitor to send previous owners solicitor asking for some money back as you haven’t got use of the allotment you paid for, you might find the previous owner calls Barbara up and tells her to get off the allotment pretty quick.

It wasn't. The solicitor has confirmed that the sale included the piece of land.

I wouldn’t get your heart set on the allotment. I think Barbara sounds more entitled to it than you are. They aren’t sold with houses.