Neighbours selling our land.....

[willfuckformichilenstarfood]

So we purchased a house 18 months ago...... it came with 2.5 parking spaces, both on our (one space is half in our boundary and half in next foors) the deeds are very vague about this space. Both our deeds

We have a what appears to be a shared front garden with our neighbour, as in it is open plan and our house are at right angles to each other. When they were selling it I over heard them telling prospective buying that it was shared. It is not only a small part of the tarmac is shared for easement.
The people who bought it were sceptical that it was shared, and it is clearly shown on deed plans that the garden is not.
Why on earth the original neighbours thought that they would part own right up to the front window of our property I will never know.

I would ring the estate agent and tell them that their advert is wrong. And I would put up a fence along your boundary. (if that is permissable)

Eh how long has this illegal extension been there and why has nobody found this odd? They sound like cfs!

Any update OP?
It seems pretty simple. Some idiot painted 5 parking spaces. If you remove the lines, it’s obvious (shown in your diagram) where your boundaries are and you both share 5. Deeds can be bloody rubbish and difficult to establish what is what especially if it’s an old building. If they sell with 3 spaces it will be them with the issue, not you.

Surely its quite straightforward
The land registry shows where your boundary is, as do your deeds.
The "shared space" is no such thing, its just some paint lines on the ground, presumably.
I'm pretty sure that doesn;t give either of you the right to park on the others land, just that is what has happened by mutual agreement, but now your plans have changed.
Just go and tell them (nicely) you're planning to landscape and in doing so will be reinstating the boundary. You're not sure when work will commence but you want to be clear as you've noted the EA details say 3 spaces.

Do you mean to say that in both of your deeds its not mentioned who owns the space? If that is the case, it would be hard to prove legally that its yours. You could make it clear at this point on your document if its vague and if its not too late.

HolyShet has it exactly right. You each have half a space either side of the boundary, not a ‘shared’ space to which you both have equal claim. You need to define the boundary in some way to make clear to viewers where your neighbour’s land ends and yours begins. Nothing to stop your neighbour repainting the lines their side to give themselves three (narrower) spaces.

Do tell the estate agent, they are bound by the Property Misdescriptions Act so they won’t want to get this wrong. Oh, and get a new solicitor, yours sounds a bit crap.

Ooh I'm settling in now...

No update?

To be honest the main problem for any purchaser isn't that there may be two spaces or three spaces. The main problem is that there is a dispute over the boundary. No-one wants to purchase a house without a clear boundary.

For this reason, you should focus your energy on spelling out your position to the estate agent. In words of one syllable and with diagrams, explain why your property extends to where it does.

Our neighbour built an extension at the back of our houses 15+ years ago 13 inches over the party wall. We noticed after we moved in and we realised then why the EA was awkward about letting us go in to the back garden when viewing. Neighbour said man who lived in our house at the time said it was ok. We Got him to knock it down. We told him it would make it difficult for him to sell in the future. He proudly said well yours was sold to you. I said well now we all know that was illegal and you are basically occupying part of our house. He rebuilt it within his own boundary and no longer speaks to us

My driveway has those lines because DH chose them but there's 2 because it's all our land. Resurfacing and taking away the lines either side of the boundary line and creating 3 (or more) on your side seems the most sensible idea.

Place marking. I hate my neighbours.

WTF? How did they just attach their extension to yours???!!!

I think if you are going to Tarmac and make more spaces then you shouldn't have a problem except for drainage. What happened to parking on the street for guests?

Turn your half of it into a lawn

When you bought your house a clear line would have been put on the plan showing what you own. Your neighbour cannot argue with that. If the space isn't on that diagram then you need to contact the Land Registry.

You said up-thread So I spoke to my solictor, he said exactly the above and that as it was vague and that as it was within both our boundary lines it was shared.

Is that the conveyancing solicitor? If so, I would take some persuading that this is not professional negligence. NO competent conveyancer will accept a transfer of title to his or her client that is 'vague' without insisting on (at the very least) insurance to cover the sort of issue you have now come up against. The time for establishing what the title was was at the time of the conveyance. You should have been written to by your conveyancer once s/he had inspected the documents drawing your attention to the 'vagueness' and taking your instructions as to what you wanted to do about it. Ideally with suggestions as to the possible options.

It is completely unacceptable for you now to be told 'it is vague'. As others have said, you either own half the space each or the whole space forms part of one or other of the properties. Separately, there might be rights over the space in the form of easements. Both these issues should have been definitively concluded by your conveyancer.

So, by all means ask your neighbour nicely to alter their instructions to the EA. If they don't, write a polite letter to the EA stating that the position in relation to the parking spaces is not clear and that pending responses from your neighbours' lawyer, the EA should be wary about claiming that the three spaces run with the other property as it seems to you that that infringes the Property Misdescriptions Act. And in the meantime, get all over the sorry ass of your conveyancer pointing out that if there is any vagueness you expect them to sort it out free of charge as you are only in this position because if they think it is vague now that is only because they failed to sort it out when you bought!!!

I'm shocked that part of the neighbour's extension being on OP's land, wasn't flagged up at the conveyancing process.

That is really serious. It could also cause problems with the mortgage, as the bank will have loaned the amount considered correct for the land on the deeds, but a chunk of it is no longer there.

A shared parking space would be backed up with a right of way of over the other half and usually some sort of indication regarding contributions for maintenance. Otherwise it is just part of the front garden.

And no solicitor would be happy about the use or ownership of part of the land being unclear. Usually the solicitor acts for both the buyer and their mortgage company. You cannot give a certificate of title to allow the mortgage company to release their funds with this sort of issue outstanding.

Op, when did you become aware of the next door's extension having been built over your boundary? It's a far more serious issue than the parking space, yet it doesn't seem to concern you??

Placemarking

I’m not sure that waiting for them to contact you is the best way forward, seems they are aware that you’ve not gone against their property latching on to yours before, therefore they are mostly likely doubting that you’ll start now. Please act!!!

Update have you spoken to them yet?

With the diagram showing what looks like 2 and a half spaces each can you actually get three cars on on your own area or 6 cars all the way across both? If not 6 then you do only have a share in the middle space which should be outlined on the plans for both properties. Also how did you become aware of what you owned when you bought your property? Something must have given details, check it out or contact EA, ask about advert and say you had driven past property and 3 spaces not easy to identify. See what they say.