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.

Purchase some slugs. Unleash hell.

but but but....she's an old laydeeee and a widowwwwww and she might be depresssssed

On no you didn’t.

I can't believe that some posters think that Barbara's possible poor mental health is in any way relevant.

What next? Allow people with anxiety or depression to nick stuff? To travel on trains without paying?

The law applies to everyone.

I’m poor so I think I deserve a nice sea view house on the Welsh coastline mwah 💋

@OhmygodDont, yes,* *sorry I was using 'allotment' in a general way, like the OP did at the start. Whatever the site is, there must be some sort of management of access, water supply etc, even if it's some kind of organised shared arrangement between all plot owners, or by a managing organisation surely.

there may not be anybody, no water supply, no security and so on....up to the land owners to fence or not as they wish. In the two circumstances I have seen it, there were just open patches of land. Some was rough and uncultivated, some was laid to grass and mowed, some was cutivated in whatever way the owner wished. As I understand it, all of the areas of land are owned by one or another of the local home owners....she might ask around.....she obvs has loads of friends....or another of the plot owners might share with her.....

Not necessarily. Some actual allotment sites don’t have water it’s being your own. Being parcels of land in theory access will be via the track on the boundary’s overall so probably some kind of dirt road that’s maintained on good will rather than anything official since you cannot tell owners of their grass what to do basically. Op says there is no stopping access it’s basically just small fields in the countryside.

If Barbara's face had fallen and she'd said, 'But I assumed it was all sorted in the sale that I'd be able to keep using it?' or 'But DearFriend assured me I could use the plot as long as I wanted!' or 'I'm so sorry, I didn't know you wanted to use it. I'm really devastated as this place has become my sanctuary. How long can you give me to find somewhere else?' or anything like that then I'd feel for her. She's entitled to be disappointed or even devastated.

But instead she said she'd fight the owners of the land for their own land. FUCK BARBARA. She's rude and obnoxious and her attitude stinks.

No way on earth would I sell or rent or share or in any other way allow Barbara to stay. She has cooked her goose with her dickhead, nasty response to you today.

My feelings exactly.

Ok, thanks. It sounds very different from the land-ownership 'allotments' I've been aware of previously.

Tell that to Babs.

I hope you can get this resolved. Id be fuming if I were in your shoes. No wonder your DH was so annoyed

hahahahaha

If it's such a palaver, let the woman help you with it. She'll probs help you do your house keeping. She can tend to her tomatoes and look after your kids sometimes even if its just for an hour. If you both work and have kids she may become be a really good friend. Even if you help an elderly person to put the bins out it means a lot. She can help you with the veg when you're at work

Is this sarcasm? I do hope so.

OP you are being given an unfairly hard time on here.
You own the plot, not Barbara. Rip off the plaster, giver her a couple of week’s notice and then start enjoying your property fully.
She knows full well she was on borrowed time.
You were considerate with the garage neighbour - I would have put all the stuff outside after a couple of weeks.

hahahaha

Any English solicitor on here?

Interesting stuff that it gets to point of getting keys before this is uncovered.

Does op have a complaint in a strange way against them for not disclosing it?

Say for example someone had bought it, never been told, then the garage blew up and harmed someone?

Maybe Babs can trade with the other CF: he uses her garage for storage and she uses his garden as her sanctuary! Job done. 🤣

I know of people who started renting allotments but for various reasons (that they hoped would be temporary) simply couldn't keep them up. As the waiting list was so long, they didn't want to give them up completely, so they offered them to friends for a while. As the rent is so low (my daughter's allotment costs her the princely sum of £3 a year) they continued paying but just let their friends use them.

It's because I'm aware of at least two cases is this among my friends, that I've tended to assume that this might well have been something that Barbara thought was happening.

I may well be wrong, but it slightly bothers me that most on this thread have focused on Barbara being the villain. I'm much more annoyed by the vendor's behaviour. Maybe you should have given her a name too, so that posters tuned in to get behaviour a bit more!

Technically in my City if it was a rented allotment. Letting someone else rent it from you would get you evicted for failing to follow the terms and conditions of not parting with any part of your plot, also that only plot holders are allowed the gate codes, for exactly the reason of clogging up the waiting list. You’d also be black listed between the various site reps.

I would go back to your seller and tell her that since you own it now, she has to get Barbara to get out of the allotment, otherwise you will have to incur costs to do it yourself and she will have to pay for it.

Have her make clear to Barbara that if she resists you it's her 'friend' she's screwing over, not you. Make it clear to Barbara yourself as well, say something like 'if we have to go legal we will, but it will get expensive and seller will have to pay for it as she missold to us as being vacant possession, which I think will be really stressful for her.' Then if Barbara still resists badmouth her to all the seller's friends in the village, saying that Barbara is causing seller to have a lot of stress and expense. Make seller the victim and Barbara the perpetrator, and things are more likely to go your way. If anyone tells you you should let Barbara have it, you can say 'of course not, we bought it to use it, we wouldn't give our house to someone who just happens to want to use it, why would it be any different with our allotment?'

Quite. 60 is still of working age now.

Bloody hell have the posters going on about being kind etc lost their minds? These are neighbours who are taking complete advantage of the fact that the OP is new to the neighbourhood and attempting to assert their dominance.

Would those of you who think this is okay be happy with someone just rocking up and taking your car or helping themselves to the food in your fridge? Property is property. The OP owns the land. Claim your land back OP, do not apologise and do not back down!

I would have a shred of sympathy if either of these CFs had shown any grace but to tell you that she will fight you for YOUR land?! If I came to you today and told you I would fight you for your car would you just roll over?

I am genuinely astounded.