Neighbour has stolen garden (with pic)!

[AnxiousAn]

Please see the image as it helps to explain this situation!

We moved into our house 6 months ago, so we are fairly new to the area. This is important as we are trying to be careful as to how we approach this.

Essentially, all of the terraced houses in our street used to back on to disused land. Over the years, all of the neighbours have claimed their ‘extra’ bit of garden by incorporating the disused land directly behind their garden. Behind the ‘extra gardens’ is a footpath.

Prior to us living here, there was an elderly owner, who as we understand from the other neighbours, didn’t claim his ‘extra’ bit as he has mobility issues. This means that Neighbour 1 has not only claimed their ‘extra’ bit, but also the bit behind our garden. Whilst we aren’t that bothered about having a bigger garden, it does mean we:

• Have no access to the back of our house via the footpath.
• Have Neighbour 1 regularly walking around that bit, directly at the back of our garden (fences are low).
• It’s quite an eyesore as Neighbour 1 uses it for storage / rubbish bins / extra wood / compost. The fence they built some years ago when they claimed it is dilapidated and looks terrible. They also have a dilapidated, rotten shed on it, which they have said they don’t use but have no reason to get rid of.

Additionally, we are the only house down our road that doesn’t have the ‘extra’ bit, and the only people whose garden is now overlooked and boxed in. Neighbour 1 has admitted he doesn’t own the land and has never bothered purchasing it.

What would you do?

To reference the photo - the black lines are the original gardens and the green is the extra bits that have been claimed. N1 stands for Neighbour 1, Ours is our garden, N2 is the neighbour on our other side… (I’ve included our neighbour on the other side so you can see what everyone else has ‘claimed’.. apart from Neighbour 1). The grey is the foot path.

By the way, I’m not sure stolen is the right term - claimed / taken / using maybe?!

How long ago did they claim it?

He probably has a claim for adverse possession and could sell it to you. But it's not yours to claim 😂

Also you should have thought about this before you bought it and did the inspections.

Are you entitled to access from the footpath?
I'm no legal expert but if you have the right of access then I'd talk to the neighbour and tell them you need it.

Find out who owns it and buy it off them?

But it’s not your garden? So they haven’t taken anything from you?

you bought it like that

Talk to him.

@Evanesy Yes, that’s why I clarified that I’m not sure stolen is the correct term. More using or claimed??

It wouldn’t have effected whether we bought the house or not. We just aren’t sure what we could do, and since we have sorted out our garden (it was very overgrown), it just looks odd that everyone else’s extends all the way back and ours is overlooked and boxed in…

Who is the owner of the disused land?

How wide is it at it's widest point?

I use to house share where we had a massive garden. It transpired that half the land belonged to a utility company but due to the layout and lack of access they couldn't use it.

However further down the street 5 years after I left the utility company worked out a way of access and sold the land to a developer. So it meant all those who had been using it as part of their garden lost the use of it.

What does it say on your house deeds/plans? Is there any mention of access etc. Who actually owns the land behind?

Do your deeds show that you have a right of way to the rear of your property? If they do, speak to your solicitor.
Any action you take is likely to impact all of the neighbours though - very similar thing happened to us and once the legal owner of the 'taken' land found out, they reclaimed it.

TBH backing onto a footpath can be a pain in the arse with rubbish, anti social behaviour etc! Sounds like no one actually owns the extra bit at the end of all the gardens so they're all land-snatching CFs! But this is something you should have raised during conveyancing. I wonder how it will affect you if you wanted to sell?

Sorry I am basically saying if the owner can be found then if you kick up a fuss they can reclaim the land and put a development on it.

It's not his, but it's not yours either.

You could try just talking to him in a friendly, but matter of fact way e.g. 'Hey, we'll be needing the end of our garden back for access, don't worry about the shed though we can dispose of that for you. Let us know if you need help moving the bins'.

But if he refuses I don't know that there is much you can do other than find out who owns the land and raise it with them. Then there's the possibility that everyone loses the end of their garden and you become quite unpopular!

Would it be feasible to remove the fence at the end of your garden? It has to be your boundary so you should be ok to do that?

Id say you need to find out who actually legally owns it now? If neighbours do have possession over it, or if someone else owns it? And if whoever does own it will be willing to sell it to you?

I would consider how important this is to you...taking action could lead to poor neighbour relationship, especially since they had the garden Iike this when you viewed the house and you decided to buy anyway.

But you have no more entitlement to that land than he does? Yes he’s a CF but you have no grounds on which to do anything about it.

Only thing I can think of is if you have right of access to the disused land or the footpath and he’s preventing that.

That's called "how to start a war

What do you want to achieve @AnxiousAn - access to the garden you already have via the plot the neighbour has claimed or the acquisition of the plot the neighbour has claimed?

Should you have direct access to the pathway from your garden?

It matters when they did this. If it was more than 12 years ago, neighbours may well be able to formalize their use of the land as possession. Google earth is useful to get old photos of the area that might tell you more.

Your best route might be to claim in infringes your right of access to your back gate. But I believe that strictly, you only have access rights to your front door.

If you really want that bit of land or access to the path, I'd speak to a solicitor.

As others have said do your deeds state a right of access? This was one to sort out before you bought it really.

You:

• do nothing and accept that's how it is
• take the legal route, find out who owns it. If they have acquired it over time, not much you can do. Otherwise, let the owner deal with it/buy from them.
• do as they did, take what doesn't belong to you of noone cares. Hand them back what they own that is on your side. If they complain, clarify they are not more entitled than you. Of course, they could then put their stuff there again...

But surely you knew this before you bought?

And your solicitor would have queried it in the searches?