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.

I've heard of a couple of cases where people have gone guerilla and taken over an allotment belonging to someone else. Alotment squatting, basically (asquatment??).

True. When I sold my old house, the emailed bumph from the other side's solicitor came with 37 paragraphs (each with about 3 subparagraphs of conditions. One was that the property had to be absolutely empty.

That's why I damn near gave myself a hernia emptying out two brick sheds in the garden and narrowly missed breaking my neck when I emptied the loft.

I don't understand how anyone would expect you to buy something and not use it yourself. You bought land. It's yours.

If she has a problem it's between her and the previous owner of the land.

The world still shocks me at the entitlement of others, as she’s made it clear you’ve no choice to go down the legal route OP.

Here’s hoping you get to 1000. Well done OP start as you mean to go on. It’s your land and your garage so lay claim now and be using that garage. Camilla basking in the sun knows damn well she doesn’t own the land she’s been borrowing it for 10 yrs LUCKY HER but the owner sold it to you and now you own it and are going to use it. Thank you for your military service as both soldier and military family There was quite an article of an active duty USA military whose house was “squatted” while deployed. It garnered huge SM attention and several military support agencies helped her get the squatter evicted. You may have similar resources available. Camilla will be fine she has brass balls and will adjust.

When you get your forks into your allotment, if Barbara has or has had a patio, please dig carefully as Mumsnet has firm ideas on the best use of a patio. You never know what you might find.

They have alerted her solicitors to this.

I would wait to hear back from their solicitors before I did anything. Were they quick to respond during the sale? They surely need to educate their client (the seller) on the legal position and then their client needs to resolve this with her very dear friend. They’ll hopefully be motivated to do so without incurring legal fees as their solicitor should make it clear that they’ll be liable for those? The mistake has been made by the seller and Barbara’s anger and distress about it should be directed at her. At the moment the situation could ultimately still be a huge misunderstanding (on the part of the seller and Barbara) and once it’s explained to Barbara she might just move rather than fight. The less involved you can be in the process of evicting her the better for long-term neighbourly/allotment neighbourly relations.

I’m not a solicitor so could well be wrong but that would be my initial response.

I don’t think being kind/compassionate and taking back what is rightfully yours are necessarily mutually exclusive. When you come across her again you can be apologetic for your initial response if you think with hindsight this was harsh, and empathise fully with how disappointed she must be if she believed herself to have been given the land but is now learning she hasn’t, but just be calmly matter of fact about it being legally yours (leaving arguments to solicitors).

Or even perhaps the laundry or bath? I mean, the PP seems to think that owning something means very little. Or the garden as a pet cemetery, loft as the neighborhood Christmas deco storage?

The previous owner lied in her sale of her house and property.

OP--please keep us updated as to what is happening with it all. I think it will be great reference material in case someone else has to deal with a hoarder/storer or an entitled allotment user.

There is one!

Im with you OP. I cant understand how some on here think your being dicks and that you should let her still use your allotment.
She must have known that the house was sold and she must have known that the land was yours how could she not, unless the old owner had said I wont say anything and they wont find out.
I would not be nice she said no to your face so thinks its hers. Its too bad, she will have to do one its your land now and all bets are off. I dont feel sorry for Barbara at all she sounds like she has all her faculties so she can find another allotment from the council. Good luck to you and your husband. Im really annoyed for you. Oh and it dosnt matter if you knew or not that you had this land, you do now and she can just eff off.

I don't understand how on being told there was a garage over the road you didn't check this out and ensure you understood if you owned it and what state it was in during the buying process. Also on learning about the allotment you didn't go and check it out ASAP. These things could've been liabilities for one reason or another. I don't think either neighbour has abused the situation with the old neighbour although they are now in a difficult situation with you. Goodness know what they've been told about being able to stay.

Slightly off track but it's very unlikely that there is much growing on the allotment right now (assuming you are in the UK). Its too early and been far to wet to plant much out yer this season and most of last seasons brassicas etc will be finished off now. Now is the perfect time to take ownership of the allotment.

Having worked for a solicitor before we never came across something like this (it’s rare) but yes definitely contact them. I would be pissed off with the solicitor especially if they just let both slide (hope you didn’t use a cheap conveyancing shop solicitors) so don’t pay for more work (they might try to get you to do so though).

Report to SRA/The Law Society if you don’t get anywhere but if need be see a copy of their complaints procedure and ask to speak to another partner if the one (or solicitor) handling your case messed up.

This is pretty straightforward stuff though and as pp has said this is negligent and they might’ve even not covered it thinking you’d miss it which is appalling. Don’t forget Google reviews…

The original owner and the people taking over the garage and allotment aren’t at fault apart from garage man but it sounds as if she just let this slide and not thought about future legal consequences.

Opposite my parents house there’s a bank of 6 garages I think built when a bomb destroyed houses there in WW2. They used to be owned and ran by an old man when I was a child and leased out to neighbours. Nowadays from what I can see people have the right to do lease them separately, it’s not an issue but when I was over the other day I saw 2 men doing something to the tarmaced roof with fire 🔥 and thought I hope they stick to their area! The doors of the garages are a state now, flaky paint and nothing like in the old man’s day but I think when he died his son didn’t want to take this on and lived too far away.

Do you believe this person when they say that the shed and plants are theirs? I wouldn’t believe such a story because it wasn’t in the details of the land you bought. It belongs to you. Just continue to use the land. She can call her lawyers but she won’t get far.

Oh my goodness OP. Just read all of your posts. I think you’ve handled yourself really well and I totally get your shock at finding Barbara living the dream on your land and not even having the decency to show some understanding that she was on borrowed time. Good luck with it all.

This is down to both solicitors to sort out not OP. OP says she knows that they’d bought something but didn’t know the full details and I’d expect as a buyer for the solicitor to have sorted this out for me as standard, plus most decent conveyancing solicitors would sort this out as standard practice.

The main question I have is whether Barbara is growing rhubarb...

Cf

Yes but depending on how far she wishes to take this she could be difficult and created unnecessary drama for OP.

One thing I was worried about throughout garage-gate was what if the garage was full of drugs or stolen goods - even though it would be easy to prove it wasn’t us I could REALLY do without the aggro. Same goes for the allotment. If you give property away you risk someone misusing it and YOU have the pay the consequences

I'm now chuckling at the thought of a whole cul-de-sac of Barbaras and Henrys running a major drugs circle in the neighbourhood. Watch out for that patio OP if you uncover the crime ring. Just imagine the Daily Mail headline ?😂😂😂

I’m interested to know what produce she currently has growing in April in Yorkshire, my veggie patch literally just has a couple of chard plants that are past their best and you might have some spring cabbages and broccoli still going.

but in reality there should be nothing in there that you can’t recompense her with a thank you for sowing this year’s parsnips here’s a tenner to compensate you for the seeds.

i would speak about taking back the allotment in the autumn.

Fruit bushes are permanently in the ground

Over winter brassicas - kale/sprouts
Root crops like parsnips can still be in the ground

And, its Yorkshire ... lots of rhubarb.

60 is still working age. You can't get your State Pension for at least another 6 years.

You might want to state that journalists can't take this thread and use it in an article original poster…

It's a kind of thing they do.

In other news, you're right, Barbara's wrong.

I don't know why pp are still telling the OP what to do tbh. She has done the right thing and contacted the solicitor so it's down to them, she doesn't need to go over there and tear up the plants.

I'm just here for the updates.