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'm on your side and admire you OP, but I'm ashamed to admit I might admire Barbara's brass balls more 😆

It’s the land of the op. If it was me I’d put the shed on a local give away for free group together with any other things I had no need of. Dig the land over. Call the police to report her harassment. Tell her to go to her lawyer if she wants.

Oh OP, some of the answers on this thread are nuts.
Barbara stole your allotment! How have we got to ‘be compassionate, she’s an elderly lady (she’s not), she may have MH issues (go to defence for being a doormat)’.
And even if she does have MH issues it’s not a bloody justification to steal your allotment!
Your DH is ex military, experiences depression and gardening helps; time for Barbara to schlep off.

Which the OP has done and confirmed it is hers.

And this is exactly why following 'the rules' in cases like this does not work. You are not dealing with reasonable people. And once you make any sort of legal paper trail your hands are tied. Arrange a bulldozer and have at it - what could they have done? Taken you to court for utilising your own land? And then hire a couple of nice burly security guards for a couple of months and see if they would have dared try anything...

Fair enough if you don’t mind clearing other people’s junk - I like to see what I’m buying before I buy it, avoids situations like this!

This is exactly what I was thinking of as I read the increasingly passionate responses on behalf of 'Barbara'…..

The land belongs to OP now. It’s a shame for Barbara, but that's the way things work when things are sold. She doesn’t have the right to use the land any more; it was the previous owner who let her use it but now they don't own it so they can’t continue to give her permission to occupy the land; only the new owners (OP) can do that, and she's totally within her rights to ask 'Barbara' to depart.

Why is this so hard to understand?

The two people are not cheeky duckers.

The owner agrees to let them make full use of the garage and the allotment and they did.

You bought it all without knowing that there were people using the garage and the allotment so you need to take it up legally with the woman who sold it to you!

It also looks like the woman did the dirty on the two people by not telling them that she was selling up and they would have to vacate for the new owners.

Can someone post a link to the new thread please?.. (don't fill this one up too quickly so there is space for the link!)

It also looks like the woman did the dirty on the two people by not telling them that she was selling up and they would have to vacate for the new owners

You wouldn’t notice if your neighbour sold their house? It’s more likely the two people knew and decided to bluff it out and carry on making use of things that weren’t theirs.

Have you actually read OPs posts?

Her husband is ex forces, suffering from PTSD and other mental health issues and would benefit from an absorbing hobby. Like gardening and growing veg.

Or is that not enough of a reason for you?

And actually, the OP doesn't have to justify ownership of this land.

Would you allow a random neighbour to use your car every day because they have a longer commute than you?

Some people take advantage whenever they can to suit their needs. Our rear neighbour ‘nibbled’ a couple of feet of our garden when they put up a new fence so they could install a greenhouse and shed. We both have long gardens. They claimed ours was a wilderness patch so they thought we wouldn’t mind. Yes we did mind and yes they bloody moved all their shit.

stand firm @YaMuvva if Barbara wins then Kevin will be back for the garage

I'm just here for the link to thread 2!!

I'm really invested and want to know how you plan on dealing with Confident Barbara OP.

Brilliant title for the second thread!

here for the update

I've been having a quick flick through and this tickled me so much. Maybe, given her behaviour, you should call her Karen. Do you actually know her name? 🤣🤣🤣

On a more serious note I am from the fuck neighbours camp. We were in a similar situation when we moved into our house in 2019. First interaction with immediate next door was 'im so glad you're white' to which I responded oh yes I am but my DH is black and our children mixed race. She then said 'oh no I just meant like polish and Asians' to which I replied that I'm half polish (my mum is polish). She then made our lives a living hell for the next three years, false social services reports, false police reports including me smoking weed whilst having a baby in the car which resulted in me being pulled over and drug tested at the side of the road. In the end she was taken to crown court and prosecuted but the emotional toll this took was pretty immense. We moved in Sept 2019 I was pregnant. Gave birth by emergency C-section 13 days before lockdown. Had to go through COVID and nursing a C-section whilst suffering this abuse and harassment from her and the neighbours that she teamed up with. They scratched my car, threw things in the garden, made numerous complaints and reports to the council, social services, police you name it.

Nip Barbara/Camilla/Karen in the bud now before it becomes an even bigger problem.

Good luck to you and I hope your DH gets to enjoy his allotment soon

The owner agrees to let them make full use of the garage and the allotment and they did

The ex- owner yes. And when she stopped being the owner, the agreement stopped. Most people with a brain cell would realise that.

So they are being cheeky duckers.

@TwittleBee I remember that thread very well. I am so sorry to hear about the outcome.

"Our neighbours now hate us and have set fire to our woodland a few times. We have no proof it is them but who else would it be."

A suggestion might be to invest (if you have any money left at all after all the legal stuff) in some trail cameras.

These are camouflaged video security cameras you can strap to trees. They cost around £50-100 each (although the fancy ones can be £200).

Having a couple of those around the place might show you who is doing this.

This thread is nuts and you have done incredibly well to keep your composure and sense of humour OP.
People do like to give other peoples stuff away dont they?
Barbara has been very lucky to have use of this land and now she needs to pack up her trowel and fuck off and any neighbours who shun you for using your OWN LAND can let Babs plant her carrots in THEIR garden instead.

If land has been built on without planning approval the planning sept at the council are obliged to enforce a retrospective application.
As part of the application the building owners have to declare they own the land.
In so doing they will be lying on a legal document and make the application invalid.
Hence
The building owners cannot apply legally and any approval ( planners do not and do not have to check ownership ) they get will be invalid.

As the building therefore has been built without legal planning approval the council planning department are obliged to enforce its removal.

Your council are vpbeing crap.
Suggest two courses of action

1. write to your MP
2. write to your local and National papers, if this gets in the papers the Council will get a kick up the backside to actually do their job.
3. Post online with pictures
4. Set up a thread on MN with pictures the newspapers are constantly cruising this site for juicy stories.

Remember the guy that built a house behind haystacks, it took years but the council eventually got their act together but only because it got in the papers.

She really should have sorted this out for you before she left and told you the arrangements, not just told you that this was part of the purchase!

This. Especially packing up the trowel and fucking off 🤣🤣🤣

Write a legal letter to Barbara by your solicitor telling her to FUCK off with her shed and bits and bobs. Your neighbours have been taking the piss. I’ve been in situations like this and fed up of bending over for cheeky fuckers

I've been having a quick flick through and this tickled me so much. Maybe, given her behaviour, you should call her Karen

I know this is kind-of light-hearted (with due respect to OP's actual RL problem) but can we please not go down the route of labelling older women 'Karen'? It’s very tiresome.

Oh no op, what a nightmare!

As a plot holder myself I know the work that goes into just preparing the beds for planting in the spring, so Barbara will no doubt have been doing some serious digging and preparation. That being said of course it’s yours and she will know she has no rights. She was probably taken by surprise and responded defensively.

If I was you, now she’s had time to sleep on it I would knock on her door and speak to her reasonably. Apologise for being a bit abrupt but explain how shocked you were to see her there, it’s your land and you expected it be empty and how you are both exited to own your first allotment plot, yet don’t want to get off on the wrong foot…and so on.

Usually when someone new to allotments takes on a plot we encourage them to start with half a plot. It’s very hard work, much more than people realise. So I would really consider asking her if she would like to keep on half of your land. I doubt that’s she’s starting much planting yet.

Allotments are very friendly places, everyone knows everyone. Your plot neighbours will water for you when you’re on holiday and help you out. I’m sure the neighbouring plot holders will feel sorry for her (even knowing she hasn’t got a leg to stand on) one of them might let them use one of their raised beds or something, so it would be better for you to try to avoid the legal route and try to work it out amicably.

Good luck