Boundary issue

[WayneCampbellsSidekick]

Not long after moving into our house last year our neighbours asked me if she could access the garden for something she couldn’t reach from her side. I had a tantrumming toddler in the pushchair at the time so was quite distracted and said yes fine. A few weeks later got home and she was sat on the front drive weeding “her” strip of land. Did what anyone would do, got the deeds out and the boundary is shown as being in line with the brickwork of the garage ie not where they claimed it was. Politely showed neighbours the deeds, asked if theirs said something different (they said no but continued to argue the line was where they claimed it was). Fast forward another few weeks, got home and weed matting had been put down while we were out. Had the same conversation about the boundaries & got the same response. Nothing more said until today noticed they’ve been in the bloody garden again to put stones on top of the weed matting while I was out! I knocked and said look I’ve noticed you’ve been in my garden again & got the response “yeah to access our bit of garden”, said it’s not on to keep coming into the garden unannounced and putting things down without permission, said if the deeds state the boundary being in line with the garage then where has this alternative narrative come from and suggested we get together with both our deeds etc to compare notes. She nodded but made passive aggressive comments about living here 20yrs/if somethings been maintained by someone for a certain amount of time then it’s theirs by law/admitted they’d argued with the previous owners about the same issue.
I have so much going on in my life right now I don’t have the energy for nonsense from the neighbours.
please can someone give me some advice on how to deal with this! Do I need to pay out for a surveyor? 🙈

I'm in trouble if not allowed to say about other sites....so MN admin delete if so.
But...
Google 'Garden law Forum' and ask under "boundries" there's some really helpful people with good knowledge of this type of thing on there.

Let your husband deal with it. I have an autistic 5 year old and an older child with anxiety so know how stressful everything is. Me I would be waiting at the window with deeds in hand waiting to see them and launch an attack 😂

Use a spade and toss all stones over the fence. See a solicitor.. We had to get a letter once to our ndn's. Cost £70..they stfu after that.

I agree with the others, she's trying to steal your land. Speak to a solicitor and get all her stuff removed, including the fence.

The RICS will give you a 30 minute free consultation about boundary disputes - https://www.ricsfirms.com/helplines/boundary-disputes/

However, adverse possession is taking sole possession of the land unchallenged for 20 years. They have told you that the neighbours challenged them. I’d keep a note of what was said but call your nearest surveyor!

I'd remove the membrane and stones and give them back to her.

The get a solicitor to write to her asking her to stop coming into your property and confirm the boundaries

Is it a gate she is coming in? Like actually opening your gate and going on to your property? I am sure that in itself is illegal. Its baffling how they think they own part of a garden that is not actually attached to them.

No there’s no gate. She’s just walking onto the driveway and basically tending a flowerbed that isn’t hers.

I think because it’s so outrageous I’m second guessing myself thinking I must have missed something?!

There needs to be a gate! That is absolute lunacy.

I went apeshit at my neighbour doing the same. Our boundary had a wonky line, it was ridiculous to be fair.
Had he asked I've have been happy for him to maintain a flower border.
But he waited til I was out, I nipped home, made my husband come home.

He ended up putting the grass back, it would have been a nightmare selling it with that dispute.

I'd get them to move that too!

Adverse possession requires more than just long term usage. There are other conditions that must be met. I think too many people assume it’s easy to prove.

No, she’s just a blatant CF who is gas lighting you. Your life does sound very busy but (like most bullies) if you stand up to your neighbours chances are life will be better with them in future.

Contact your insurers and get them to pursue them legally. You will have legal cover as part of you home insurance. Fair warning though as a family member is going through this (including the whole “I’ve maintained this for X years” thing) it could take a long time and if your insurers don’t agree it could cost tens of thousands. Family member was quoted £60-70k privately but the insurers felt there was a case. You need to address it sooner rather than later though because you’ll be asked why you didn’t at the point you realised it was an issue. Gather evidence: no access from their garden to that big of land, the deeds, photos from when you purchased the house and now etc. They neighbours are right about maintenance however if they did it with the previous owners permission then it means nothing other than they were doing the owners a favour, it has to be without their knowledge for the maintenance thing to hold. The neighbours in my family members case have been obstructive, there has only just been a survey done. The whole thing has been going on over 2 years.

And yes you need them to move the fence, they’re land grabbing. I really think you’ll find you’ll have a case.

Go onto the land registry site (make sure it sone correct one not these scammers, go via gov.uk) you can then download their deeds for £3 or £6 well worth it as it will show their boundary as well

then put a fence up

I wanted to clarify that my family
member pursued this because they were worried about the ability to sell the property if the deeds and boundary didn’t align. The fence being in the wrong place is likely to be picked up.

Do I need to get a surveyor in to put this to bed once and for all? How much will this cost me?! 😬

A fence/gate will probably be cheaper and more effective than a solicitor.

An electric fence be even better ;)

You don’t need a solicitor or a surveyor yet. Download your neighbours title deeds and title plan and compare them. Mistakes are possible so it’s not inconceivable that both title plans include the same piece of land. Remember that there is a degree odd discrepancy with what is on the title plan ie the thick red line equates to maybe a metre on the ground etc.

If it’s clear that the land is yours then carefully remove everything and give it back to her. Don’t damage her property, but she doesn’t have permission to put things on your land so she can have it all back!

From what you’ve said, she won’t meet the criteria does adverse possession so don’t worry about that.

The fact she mentioned she had arguments with your sellers about it doesn’t mean they have deliberately not disclosed something to you. They may be unaware they had argued with her and may have just told her, as you have, that’s not your land and left it at that.

The police works not be interested in this as it is a civil matter.

There’s not much she can do if she doesn’t own the land and it shouldn’t cost you thousands to resolve.

@WayneCampbellsSidekick down load the two filed plans, yours and hers the cost is £6.https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

Establish who is responsible for the boundary/fences and decide if you want a fence or not.

Copy the plans and send them to neighbour with a covering letter.

Dear

Please find enclosed a copy of the Land Registry filed plans showing our boundaries. The plans clearly show the boundary is ……

The previous owners have advised us the fence has been incorrectly placed completely within our boundary. The previous owners confirmed they advised you of this and asked you to correctly reposition it on the boundary. You have failed to do this so we are planning to remove the fence on (date) and reposition it so it sits on the boundary as set out in the deeds.

Or

We are not planning to replace the fence and will return the fence and posts to you. Alternatively we are happy for you to reposition the fence on the boundary by (date).

As previously stated on (dates) we have verbally advised you the piece of ground (add description) is completely within our boundary. With immediate effect we are withdrawing the access you requested to maintain your property. You misrepresented the reason for requesting access and have misused it to tamper with our property. We will be clearing the weed-matting and stones you placed on our property without consent and will return them to you.

In future, if you wish to request access to our property to enable you to carry out repairs and maintenance we would appreciate the request in writing clearly setting out the access required. We will not unreasonably withhold permission but we do not want access to be misused to tamper with our property.

Please let us know by (date) if you plan to reposition the fence.

Happy to discuss

Obviously tailor the letter but basically this is a firm letter establishing the extent of your property. Returning the fence, matting etc. means they have their property back.

This letter on its own would not be classed as a dispute. How they chose to proceed may turn it into a dispute.

This is a forum I have seen recommended for advice on MN before
https://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=128bd5537df0c26ac7c44bf1187934d2

This. Forget what you've seen/have.

She is saying this is different. That's your starting point to confirm. You could be back here with the answer in 15 mins...