Land dispute!! Cheeky offer?!

[NewHere77]

It has recently come to light due to neighbours pending house sale, that our neighbour has around 20 square metres of land at the top of her garden that legally belongs to our boundary. She has asked us to sign over the land to her for £200.

AIBU to think she is being a CF offering £200 for the land, as I think it likely adds a lot of value to neighbours house? (She initially wanted us to sign over land for free)!

The land adds about a third to neighbours garden and has a pretty view which isn’t overlooked.

Neighbour is playing down desirability of land but has also said that buyers will pull out if land is not included and has said she is willing to go to court to claim land.

If we disagree, she is threatening to use adverse possession claim but neither parties have been in either property long enough to claim adverse possession, although neighbour is talking about getting accounts from relatives of now deceased previous occupants of our house.

Part of me feels bad that we bought the house not knowing the extra land was ours so feels a bit rich asking for more money for it, the other side of me is thinking why should our neighbour profit from land that is not legally theirs. Interested to hear others perspectives and what land could be worth.

Thanks!

I’m a land agent, you obviously shouldn’t be transferring to her for £200, the legals will cost 5 times that alone, she’s a CF.

It doesn’t sound as though she has grounds to claim adverse possession, how long has she lived there? You need to reinstate the boundary and access the land as a first step, I would put that in writing to her and the agents selling her house.

Ignore people on this thread quoting agricultural land prices - they are not comparable here as the marriage value for the property owner makes this significantly more valuable.

Im based for a rural firm in east mids, drop me a DM if you think I can help.

Rules are much harder now

@snackprovidersupreme’s suggestion sounds good but maybe also blame the bank for insisting you fence off your garden to clearly mark it now that issue has come to light.

Regardless of whether your neighbour was using the land, you are the owner of the land according to land registry. I think once you involve solicitor then she will back off. She may loose the sale but that’s her own fault. It’s obviously been identified by her buyer and she hasn’t been able to provide any legal documentation supporting transfer of ownership.

Having sold a couple of properties recently, due diligence was very intense. Fortunately we had all the deed variations going back 100 years which answered all the queries. We did have to sign an affidavit re one of the properties access roads. It was an unadopted road and we had to confirm that access had been continuous since we had owned the property. I think solicitors are far more on the case than they used to be. As someone pointed out, it’s up to you to confirm the land registry map, the new buyer is just more experienced than you.

Our current home had rear gated access in the plans which meant we would be responsible (partly) for the maintenance of the access road. Once built there was no access, I spotted it on the plans we had to sign off and our solicitor had it amended.

£200 is an absolute joke. It’s worth at least 20k.

https://www.purplebricks.co.uk/moving-guides/how-to-value-garden-land#:~:text=or%20commercial%20use.-,How%20do%20you%20calculat

How to value garden land

This is shocking from neighbour.

What is marking the boundary at the moment OP ? the yellow line and the true boundary . Are there any fences up. I'd be putting my own fence up asap on the correct boundary with my land fully enclosed inside it .

I'm pleased for you that it has come to light. At least now you can now act on that information

Having seen the plan I would get a gardener in to cut back the brambles, see if the original fence is still there.
I also would not consider selling as it will devalue your home.

Tell her you’ll split the cost of an independent surveyor to value the land and then she can choose whether to offer that. She can ask her buyers to pay some or all of it if it’s essential to them to own the land, as she suggests.

Agreed. Onus was on the buyer /their surveyor to check

Agree with other PPs: either reclaim it or pay for
an expert opinion (which would then stand up in court
should push come to shove).
200 quid is plain embarrassing.

@Minewasthesame OP says “It has recently come to light due to neighbours pending house sale, that our neighbour has around 20 square metres of land at the top of her garden that legally belongs to our boundary”.

You cannot sell off some of your land without the approval of your mortgage provider (who will have a charge on the register for your property saying this). if your Loan to Value is high then there is very little likelihood of the mortgage company agreeing.

So say that to the neighbour, but be firm that you are not entertaining the idea.

In the stress of all of this your post made me laugh 🤣 thank you! I’ll get the paper tomorrow 😆

Thanks for all of your posts. From my reading I was thinking between 5-10K and your posts have suggested similar if not more. I think we will need to bite the bullet and pay for a survey. We got some quotes for £500 for survey but sounds like it could be worth it in the long run.

i’m having trouble replying to posts but thanks for everyone. Really good to hear professional advice too.

Will keep you updated!!

@snackprovidersupreme knows what she is talking about here. Your neighbour is on a hiding to nothing.

Your solicitor should have spotted this when you purchased but I assume you were sent a copy of the title deeds and didn't look at the boundaries? Do you have any idea how long this area of land has been used as part of the neighbours' garden, if they are threatening to claim Adverse Possession? Whatever you decide is a good price to accept make sure your legal costs are covered.

No I'd keep it and move the boundary into the correct place. Make your garden a nicer shape and possibility to have a summer house or something down there

200 is taking the piss. Get legal advice asap. I wouldnt just let her have it after being threatened with adverse possession rights. That would have irked me enough to put up a fight. There’s ways of asking and that’s not the way.

I think my Mil paid £5k for a similar sized plot to extend her garden twenty years ago. £200 is a laughable offer. If it’s got a lovely view I’d keep it.

id settle for 5k

£200 is ridiculous. I spend that taking the family out for a meal!!!!!

They are taking advantage and trying to scaremonger you.

Tell them you are going to take legal advice regarding the fact they have been using your land without permission! Tell them not to use the land and ask if they want to rent it off you in the meantime. That may make them think!

Firstly check your house insurance for legal cover :-)

Agree with others it is worth a lot more. Also how can neighbour clai adverse possession of it is covered in brambles and nettles? Were they using it for blackberry wine and nettle soup?

Don’t you pay for a survey. It should be either the solicitor who fucked up paying for it, or the neighbour wanting to buy it. You choose who to survey it and they pay to get it done. The land is yours- if they refuse to pay then you just start using the land again.

Where abouts are you OP? And is the land flat or hilly? I’m possibly influenced by London prices but no one I know would give up that big chunk of land for £5-10k.