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.

When she repeats how it's her sanctuary, make it clear to her that this allotment is an important part of the house purchase for your husband who has been seriously ill for so long. And that's it's intended to be his sanctuary.

I'd also (assuming that you do talk to her at some point) make it clear that you empathise with what she's lost, but that it's not your fault, and it's her old dear friend who wasn't up front with her about the sale.

Agree, it's deflating, but it's barely mid-April. You can be going full steam ahead by early May.

Not heard of an allotment coming with a house, is there an allotment committee, we have to pay rent on ours and prove live within the catchment area. 💐

Again, why compromise with a belligerent squatter?

OP's property is not the only vegetable plot in Yorkshire. Barbara will survive.

Shamelessly following to find out what happens.

but its THEIRS. They can turf it over and cultivate it bit at a time.

Oh dear.

its being called an allotment on here to describe how its being used but its actually a piece of land which belongs to the OP, purchsed with the house and not a council one.

Sharing it adds to the complication though. It is still OP 's land. And I suspect that sharing with someone who will resent watching OP and DH tending an area which she'd thought of as hers, will not make for a comfortable atmosphere.

I would move her stuff out and put it outside her home.
I would call the police to make sure there is no breach of the peace when u do it as the lady mentioned "fight"
be clear to the police someone Is on your land without permission as Ownership has changed hands and she has verbally threatened you.

Have your deeds handy to show the police.
She was never a squatter , she had permission to upkeep it from the old owner and the old owner didn't inform her > so it's just a misunderstanding.
When the police show up ,it will be enough as this lady is just trying it on > she has no legal right whatsoever.
This way will save you solicitors costs and going to court .
Then say to her, if you want it , go to court.

Rip the plaster with Barbara. It's kinder for everyone in the long run.... Imagine in 5 years her still hanging around digging over a section...... Her dear old friend is at fault not you.

Oh the entitlement op. I would not delay in laying claim to YOUR land. I think a visible presence at the site is important although confrontation is not pleasant, but it is not your fault.

When we bought our house, it had been empty for two years and had a large garden that a couple in the nearby courtyard had made good use of. They still wanted to come onto our garden to collect our fruit etc because it "was a shame you have moved in...". They even put ladders over our wall to come onto the garden! I put a stop to it immediately and it went down like a lead balloon.

We would also spend more than ‘an hour a week’ there

I used to live in a house with this kind of ‘allotment’. Some of the ‘allotments’ were used by others (other neighbours) but it was always made clear they were being allowed to use the plot or part of it and it wasn’t actually theirs. One man had his own ‘allotment’ and also used 2/3 of a neighbour’s allotment because they were old and only wanted the lower bit not have to cultivate the whole thing (they were big plots).

Your vendor should have given Barbara notice that the house, garage and allotment were being sold. If she sold the allotment with vacant possession, then she lied directly or accidentally.

I’d show the deeds to Barbara, inspect what she’s actually planted this season, then allow her to keep cultivating those planted things (there might not be much yet) until Autumn (give her a date) as long as she behaves reasonably, with you having the option to end this agreement at any time if she doesn’t .

If she continues to be awkward, I’d give her 14 days to clear the lot, including shed.

Imagine if you’d turned up and Barbara wasn’t there, you could’ve been in the shed and digging up before she knew what’d hit her. Don’t accept anything less than what you paid for, she’s obviously a bit thick to spend money on a shed on land that doesn’t belong to her!

I think the main problem is the lack of communication from the seller. I'd be more annoyed with her then the neighbours. I really feel for the allotment lady.

I understand about the garage and the cheeky neighbour but I actually feel sorry for the allotment person who has spent 10 years growing things and it is her sanctuary. Are you really going to put in the level of work she has done. Try to come to some compromise as it would be horrible to see all the work she has done destroyed and contact solicitor and woman who you bought the house off as all this should have been sorted and she should have told the garage user and the allotment lady what was happening. Hope things get sorted but it is a very sensitive issue as can see her side and 10 years of cultivating it and her sanctuary place.

If Barbara was so bothered about her sanctuary she would have offered to buy the land from her friend before they moved! She has wanted something for nothing and tbh in your shoes I would have been expecting a sheepish apology once caught out, not fighting talk!

See if you can get chatting with any of the other 'allotment' owners on your daily walks. They might give you some intelligence about Barbara.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gaurgrow.distancelandareameasure

This is the app.

Cc
@YaMuvva @BungledBundle

Nope...I would keep it clear and business like. Calm and polite of course but no need to empathise or make excuses for wanting her to leave. CF's will see it as weakness. A non CF wouldn't have threatened a fight in the first place.

oh come on...she KNOWS the score, KNOWS she isn't legally entititled to the land. She offered to fight ffs

BreatheAndFocus has given very good advice here and I would be included to go with her advise as it is fair and gives her time without making enemies on the road. Really bad that the person who you bought the house from had not given her notice and informed her you the new owners.

I’m sorry but it’s really not the OPs problem!

Me too. I'm not a gardener, but I totally how get how much time, energy and love Barbara has put into that plot of land, and how much it means to her. Ten years is a long time, and she'll undoubtedly be very attached to it.

None of that changes the fact that she has no right to be there, but if I was in OP's shoes I'd let her carry on through the summer and maybe early autumn so that she gets to harvest what she's growing this year, and to get her head round the idea that it won't be hers to enjoy next year.

I'd also be mindful of the fact that I was going to have to live among these people for the foreseeable future, and that I'd already pissed off Garage Man and upset Barbara. I wouldn't want to be That Neighbour.

I'd be wanting to go after the vendor and give her hell though. Wtf was she thinking? You haven't got vacant possession of half of what you bought, by the sound of it. I'd leave that up to my solicitor to deal with though, I think.

It may be worth getting some pictures of the allotment while Barbara's stuff is still there, OP, so you can show that it's occupied.

They do, but not to the same accuracy. Phones are only accurate to something like 3 metres. Those big satellite stick things are accurate to around 2cm.

That's a big difference when you're looking at marking out a boundary.