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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Neighbour stole our woodland?

983 replies

TwittleBee · 27/01/2019 07:00

Our DGrandad left me and my sister his woodland when he passed away a few years ago. It isn't anything that special (as in its not protected and hasn't any distinguished species) but does have a TPO on a couple of trees. It is a place that my sister and I visit occasionally and thought that perhaps we could use it as a place to "wild camp" with the kids this summer for a few weekends. Even had insipiration from what George Clark created in a piece of woodland in his series Amazing Spaces and thought maybe one day with enough money we could do the same.

Anyway, we went down there this weekend to have a look to see if we could maybe clear a patch for a good tent destination, Thought it be good to do this now before everything starts flourishing in the spring.

To our shock it's all been fenced off and there has been some very obvious clearing of trees and shrubs! We knocked on the nearest house to ask what's happened to our woodland and the couple that lived there informed us that they have now taken it as their own and have started keeping it in order for past couple months. They said that it now makes our land legally theirs?

Obviously we shall be seeking legal advice but in the meantime, can what they claim actually be correct?

Just seems so unfair? Surely that would mean I could just fence off any land and claim it as my own?

OP posts:
JeffJarrett · 27/01/2019 12:53

Following and rooting (har har) for you OP!

I'm very interested in the TPO and the possible £20k fine another poster mentioned. Wouldn't that be a nasty shock for them?

Racecardriver · 27/01/2019 12:56

Your neighbours are in adverse possession. They have zero legal rights over it. The only way they could get legal rights is by continuing their adverse possession for 12 years then registering their claim with the land registry and giving you two years notice to normalise their occupation. Basically they are lying to you. Tell your solicitor that you want to sue them for trespass and damaging your property.

DareDevil223 · 27/01/2019 12:58

Absolutely stunned by the sheer Cfuckery of these people.

I do think OP that your woodland could be the ideal venue for the inaugural MN festival. Loud bands, food, Mumsnetters drinking in the sun. I'm sure the neighbours would love it. It would only be for a few days Grin

userschmoozer · 27/01/2019 13:00

I would totally sign up for a MN festival to Reclaim TwittleBee Wood!

Lets haunt them Grin

mmgirish · 27/01/2019 13:01

That's mad! Why do people think they can do things like that?

DramaAlpaca · 27/01/2019 13:06

Rarely does a thread make me utterly furious on the OP's behalf but this one has.

Coolaschmoola · 27/01/2019 13:08

I'm constantly amazed by the brass neck of some people!

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 27/01/2019 13:08

I believe the council took action to remove the french doors. Don't know if they tracked down the neighbour and made them pay though. Maybe that thread is in classics?

If I recall correctly there was a rather sad end to that - the neighbours work was so poor that the whole wall came down, also damaging the OPs house so she was not able to live there Sad. Hopefully I have misremembered.

UnicornSlaughters · 27/01/2019 13:10

Did you just meekly wander off again when the CFs told you the land now illegally belonged to them?

I'd have ripped the fence down with my bare hands!

Furious for you and hope a swift solicitors letter kicks them back into reality.

Either that or I'm going to claim the carpark behind our house as part of my garden if land theft is that easy

Itssadsometimes · 27/01/2019 13:18

Great advice here.(lawyer).
The only person who can screw this up is you if you try to be nice.
Solicitor tomorrow. And do what they say. Do not DIY

SuchAToDo · 27/01/2019 13:19

Op i would take legal advice, they can't just claim it as there's, that would be like claiming your neighbours garden as yours and putting a fence around it...I'd also get legal advice about the trespassing on your land, and about the damage they have caused (cut down and removed your trees without your permission)..

Don't let it drop,

Userplusnumbers · 27/01/2019 13:22

CF-ery of the highest order!

You've had loads of good advice on here already OP, although I'd probably skip the DIY part, anyone with that amount of brass neck isn't going to do anything off the back of a letter you send yourself.

WunderBlah · 27/01/2019 13:23

Just to add, keep a photocopy of your deeds handy at all times. If it ever kicks off with the neighbours when you are there the police will take one look at the deeds and back you to the hilt.

I would second photographing everything, gathering old pics and if possible setting up some sort of occupation on the land. These people clearly don't give a damn what the law says and it would be awful if you came back in a couple of weeks and they had bulldozed and paved the lot.

I would be down there wearing body cameras, giving them one last verbal chance to move their fence, getting them to talk about what they have done as much as possible and then removing it for them.

Roussette · 27/01/2019 13:25

I do know someone who has had a house on a Common for about 15 years. The land is I think privately owned but managed by the Council. Farmers have grazing rights

Every year CF moves his fencing six inches or more at a time onto the Common. He's got a massive garden now and it was not like that when they first moved in! I wish his NDNs would shop him but they're probably very wary of him and turning the other way.

MrMeSeeks · 27/01/2019 13:26

Can’t believe the cheek of them Hmm

SaturdayNext · 27/01/2019 13:34

In addition to going to the solicitors, I'd be tempted to visit as often as possible, taking a stepladder if necessary to get over the fence, and stay there for a few hours every time to make it clear that, so far as you are concerned, the land is obviously yours.

LadyandGent · 27/01/2019 13:37

Placemarking for the update from solicitor. Blush

KurriKurri · 27/01/2019 13:39

The person I bought my last house off had tried to do this with a patch of waste landnext to the house - they'd basically fenced it and said 'this is ours now'. Actually it beloned to the farmer who owned the fields behind our house and it was an occasional access route for him, - it wasn't maintained by him because he only drove heavy machinery down it about once a year at harvest time.our onwers had planted leylandii on the land !
Anyway the upshot was they weren;t allowed to keep it and they had to take the trees down as it blocked his route (and wasn;t their land! ).

I'm sure your woodland thieves are in the wrong and will have to take the fencing down (they should pay for this) I'd also be after getting them to pay your legal costs - the fuckers - why do people think they can do this ?

RebootYourEngine · 27/01/2019 13:41

Do you live close to the wood?
Do you have photos of you or anyone else in your family in the wood?

SleepWarrior · 27/01/2019 13:45

Don't send them a letter or anything. Just solicitor and go from there.

Mummyoflittledragon · 27/01/2019 13:47

Rousette
You could report them surely?

I think I read on another thread the patio door garden stealer was fake.

hotchocy · 27/01/2019 13:55

They absolutely can not claim your land as theirs. They would have to occupy it for 10 years unnoticed by you, and then during the application process to register it in their name you would be contacted and would have 2 years to respond and eject them from the land.

Firstly seek legal advice to determine any legal recourse for damage caused and a strongly worded warning letter sent from the solicitors to the CF's. As soon as you can remove their fences and return to them, it is your absolute right to do so. I would then erect your own fences if possible as well as signs stating trespass is not permitted. Keep checking regularly, if there is a repeat of the situation, defer back the the solicitor.

I have been working in land for 10 years so while not able to give legal advice I'm telling you what I have done for others in your situation.

Mulberryandthyme · 27/01/2019 13:55

@FlipF - may I ask how you do the historical images thing on Google Earth please? I've just tried, on Google Earth, and not managed to find it.

Roussette · 27/01/2019 13:58

MummyoflittleDragon yes I could report them. But I don't live there, I don't know their NDNs, etc... the NDNs are the ones who should. They'll get caught eventually and they can't sell the house with the garden fenced like it is.

MinistryofRevenge · 27/01/2019 13:58

OP, when you get judgment against them, and they don't pay, please register an interest against their property, just to elegantly turn the tables on them.