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.

Did the owners have a right of access to the footpath originally via the extra land. If not your plot has lost nothing.

Start walking through it regularly, without asking his personal isdoon, and get someone to photograph you accessing it.

You can have a right of access over land you don’t own. However you should have clarified this when you bought it. Check back with your solicitor and in your deeds. If there is nothing then as he doesn’t own it and doesn’t have the deeds I would be tempted to try and bluff him into giving you access by saying you were told there was a deeded access and you don’t want to upset his apple cart by contacting the real owner of the land and suggest you just sort it out between you. Then record your right of access with the land registry.

🙄

I don’t like being ‘that person’ but was it not something you discussed when buying the house? You need to find out how long he’s been doing it for.

You need to start using this land too

Honestly, if I was the neighbour and I had been using the land for 10+ years, and then the OP started clearing mys tuff away, I would be making the official claim to the land by adverse possession.
He might not own the land, but if hes been using it for long enough, there is very little the OP can do, unless the neighbour is willing to relinquish that bit.

well then you can tell him you’re taking it back 🤷‍♀️

Its not the OPs to "take back", though!
The neighbour actually has more claim to the land than the OP

I can't believe people are giving @AnxiousAn a hard time over this. She clearly states they're being careful, not wanting to cause an upset, not bothered about having a bigger garden etc. She actually asks 'what would you do?'

No one in the row of houses had a right of access. No one appears to know the actual owner of the land, whether it's registered or not. No one apparently has adverse possession, although they may have the right to apply for it if the time frame conforms.

Useful blog on adverse possession, in lay man's terms here
Adverse possession of registered land: The importance of serving a counternotice when trying to defend a claim brought against your land (gosschalks.co.uk) including the land owner right to refute.

I've made my suggestions above as to how the OP could handle the situation to mutual benefit. I forgot to add, in conversation you could add that you're concerned about a potential rodent issue, they love to nest under old undisturbed sheds and amongst piles of hoarded materials. The point being that the previous infirm owner was passive, but now it's a good time to overhaul things and have some uniformity and order.

Everyone comes at situations like this from the opinion that the neighbour is going to be resistant, but he may well fancy someone else doing the tidy up and a better outlook all round, so long as he still has an amount of land for his utility bits, sorted out by OP's new scheme.

This would be my question for a solicitor.

Has he blocked your right if way?

Would his adverse possession beat your right of way?

Personally I think you are just wasting money in hiring a solicitor and trying to buy the land if your garden is an adequate size.

I would invest in a decent high fence at the rear and plant along the pack some tall shrubs or trees that will give w nice backdrop to the end of your garden.

I think that is preferable to having a footpath at the bottom of the garden.

You will need his cooperation to get that bit of land and by all means ask him, but I don’t think he’ll agree. Why would he?

Frankly, I’d just build a big fence so I don’t have to look at his junk and move on with life.

So would I.

OP, if you want to PM me to establish if this is the same street I’m happy to help and make some discreet enquiries.
As far as I’m aware, nobody knows who the land belongs to, and it isn’t within the time frame to claim adverse possession.

I do understand his position and why he’d be reluctant to give up the land. I can’t also help but feel he has been quite cheeky though and potentially took advantage of the previous owner. Nobody else in the street has done this, only him. It just seems quite selfish and greedy.

But that’s immaterial. We are going to have a chat with him.

Brilliant article @martinisforeveryone thanks.

Yes. Imagine the reverse of this post. From the neighbour who took the extra piece of land as the previous old man didn’t care / wasn’t aware. They’ve been keeping their old shed and junk on it and don’t understand why the new neighbour might have questions about that. They would be getting some interesting replies.

To be fair, he’s been cheeky and willing to push the boundaries (literally ha!). So why are you supposed to be meek and mild about it. Why shouldn’t you push the boundaries too?

Thats neither here nor there.
The previous owner didnt want that bit of land, which also didnt belong to him.
The neighbour saw that the space wasnt being used, and used it for himself.
If hes done it for long enough, he has a claim to it, and you dont, regardless of what other neighbours might have done.

I would prepare to just put up a bigger fence and forget about that bit of land, as unless there is some right of way legal situation, you will not be claiming that land at all (or if the neighbour has only been using it for a few years. But if its a decade or more, his claim is strongest, regardless of who owned the land previously. His claim will supercede the legal owners claim, if he can prove hes been using it for that long)

Because he might have a legal claim to the land! Whereas the OP definitely doesnt!

I can’t also help but feel he has been quite cheeky though and potentially took advantage of the previous owner. Nobody else in the street has done this, only him. It just seems quite selfish and greedy.

He has in no way taken advantage of the previous owner, this was not the previous owner's land and (from what you say) the previous owner had no interest in a bigger garden.

If the previous owner had gone for adverse possession and maintained their garden better you would not have got such a bargain.

This is just a story you are telling yourself to justify wanting your neighbour's land.

I think your approach of a chat is the best one.
Going down any form of official route could either lead to everyone losing their claimed land, or having to pay to buy it officially. Result, all your neighbours hate you.

Or, it might transpire that everyone has been using it for long enough that they can claim ownership. Result: you are unlikely to get the land you're after.

Since the whole situation has emerged casually and not legally, a casual and not legal solution is your best hope, I think.

I would personally play the long game. Work on building up a good relationship with your neighbour in particular but also as many others as you can. This only works if they are half decent people to begin with, but hopefully they are. Go over and above to be good neighbourly citizens. Take any opportunity to do favours. Invite them to a BBQ in summer or whatever. You can't overdo the buttering up or they'll smell a rat, but if you genuinely and consistently go out of your way to create a sense of that bond between you, you'll be in a great place.

THEN I would open the chat with your neighbour about the land, about how you'd love to have the same extra space as everyone else etc etc and see if you can play to their reasonable and more caring side. Once they know, trust and like you, it's so much more likely they'll be open to giving up something that currently benefits them.

But I don't know what conversations you've had so far - sounds like you've already had a few, so I can see it might be a case of strike while the iron's hot!

Ultimately, though, you bought the home as is and I'd also try to focus on appreciating it as is. Just in case none of this works.

@AnxiousAn What happens if you have a chat and he says he's going to continue to use it?

If no one owns it, the council does.