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.

I have taken over a piece of land to the side of my work premises along with a neighbour. I did this after I’d exhausted all options as to who owned it via the Land Registry, the Local Authority, the business owners adjoining and the previous owner of my building.

Ive got a fire door leading out on to it that has been there in excess of 20yrs so due to the length of time passed I can legally acquire a right of access if some random person with a deed turned up evidencing it was their’s. My neighbour has similar rights to myself. We have agreed to share it. Have fenced it off so it’s for our exclusive use. That’s the important bit about acquiring a ‘possessory title’ over it in the future.

1. Do your deeds make reference to any old Transfers? This is where you find rights of way/access; although they should have been noted on the registers.

2. If you do an index map search covering the whole of the land grabbed by your neighbours it will uncover any legal owners (ie title numbers) *these are cheap to obtain.

3. if you’re neighbour has been there in excess of 12yrs (or the person from whom he bought might have done a Statutory Declaration stating they’d used it X amount of years without objection when he bought). with that portion fenced off he could apply for a Possessory Title.

4. The best outcome is that your neighbour can apply for the title so that you have the possibility of buying it from him.

They are using it. They have not stolen it. And why would they stop using it so she can use it instead and incorporate it into her garden , just so she doesn’t tell on them? There is a huge chance the owners won’t care if the person uses it. It’s probably a nature strip or similar.

you seem to think being told on is such a fear making thing they’d just stop using it and let the op incorporate it .

personally I think if she asks politely they may say yes as all they do is store their bins there, but it’s crazy to suggest they would stop out of fear of being told on. The op doesn’t even know who owns it, and if she does, what’s she going to say, my neighbours put their bins on it?

*OP tell neighbour you want the bit at the back and i guarantee they’ll give it you

The consequence of them not, are you telling the owner and them risking the entire row being taken back from them! Why would they do this?! They have no leg to stand on so have no choice but to give it to you.*

This is nuts.

You have absolutely no idea what the neighbour will do, what the landowner will do what the consequences of threatening the neighbour will be.

There are pieces of land like this all over the place. Owned by the local authority. Owned by railway companies. Owned by building companies.

Your plan is to say to this neighbour 'give me that land or I will tell on you'. Thus completely destroying the relationship with the neighbours.

Then, if he doesn't...to contact whoever owns it as you know for sure that they will say 'we can't have that' and start the process of get the land back from all of those people and returning it to wasteland.

In reality, the people who won it clearly don't care. It's definitely going to cost them money to get it back. And for what? To exact a revenge plan for someone they don't know.

Imagine an enormous company like say East Midlands Railways receiving correspondence saying

The people on Apple Tree Road in Huddersfield have extended their gardens on to a piece of land owned by you. They have put up fences and have looked after the former wasteland strip.

You really think they are going to leap up and start instructing their legal team?

@BambooFridge
Imagine an enormous company like say East Midlands Railways receiving correspondence saying

The people on Apple Tree Road in Huddersfield have extended their gardens on to a piece of land owned by you. They have put up fences and have looked after the former wasteland strip.

You really think they are going to leap up and start instructing their legal team?

That isn't far fetched idea at all. 🫤

• Have Neighbour 1 regularly walking around that bit, directly at the back of our garden (fences are low).

just noticing this bit from the Op, sounds like the neighbour does use that part of the garden so it's less likely he would want to give it back. A compost heap and bins are not rubbish you can offer to chuck away for him, as others have suggested. OP could sort out the low fence situation pretty easily herself surely, with a better fence!

I am not sure everyone on this thread knows that the law of adverse possession did change relatively recently. https://www.michelmores.com/agriculture-insight/adverse-possession-20-years-reforms/

to reckons posters, they have stolen it because they have extended their garden fences to include this extra land

they are not just storing some bins there! they have taken and refenced around it according to op sketch

if word gets back to the owners they’ll only have to look at their boundaries to see what they’ve done

having fenced it doesn’t make it theirs

we did exactly same thing before we legally bought the big at the back of our strip

originally we fenced it - did so for years but solicitor said it’s all old wives tales about gaining rights

What on earth are you talking about, 😂 look at the diagram again. No one has stolen anything.

look at the drawings

the original back gardens are where the black line is on op garden

the others have extended their back gardens out to include the green bits

where op has two black lines - one is for her fence - the other is the new fence all the neighbours have put in at the end once they’ve stolen the green bits

originally all gardens stopped where op did

and op has literally stated that they have stolen the land over the years

putting fencing around land you don’t own is by definition stealing! i know- i’ve done it!

As PPs suggest it’s definitely best to talk to neighbour first and see if you can come to an amicable agreement.

It depends on lots of factors. Is the land currently registered to anyone?
How long can neighbour prove they’ve had sole use of the bit behind yours?

Yes you could add that you don’t want to stir up trouble and risk everyone including your neighbour losing the extra land.

If it’s unregistered then someone has the right to make a claim after 12 years of evidenced sole use. It’s not an ‘old wives tale’. (It’s 10 years for registered land) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adverse-possession-of-1-unregistered-land-and-2-registered-land/practice-guide-5-adverse-possession-of-1-unregistered-and-2-registered-land-where-a-right-to-be-registered-was-acquired-before-13-october-2003

If there is an owner they can object. This might be the council.

Just because a piece of land isn’t registered it doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t owned by someone.

If your neighbour doesn’t legally own it (as you say) and doesn’t have a potential legal claim then if the worst comes to the worst you could just attempt to take possession, by fencing it off yourself. But hopefully it won’t come to that.