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.

Or it may prompt him to formally claim adverse possession at which point it will become his. He’s daft not to have done this already assuming he’s been there for long enough

That's why you need to do a Land Registry search and find out how long he's been there so you can assess whether there is any risk of this.

I'd do this too. Access via some random footpath isn't a positive in my eyes. Nor would an elongated garden really sway me towards having neighbour issues, which I suspect you may if you raise this.

Is it worth it OP? Neighbour issues are horrible. It can make your life extremely hard.

Erect a tall fence and make the most of your newly looked after garden. Renovate the house and enjoy. Don't start trouble for no reason, I say.

Agree that forcing the matter, particularly early on, is not a good route.

OP should have queried who owned the shed when it was at the bottom of 'their' garden.

Wouldn't it have been apparent that the neighbour owned the shed as he has fenced the wasteland into his garden?

The shed is at the bottom of the OP's garden, beyond a fence.

It’s all to do with how long he’s been using that bit of garden I guess.

check with the land registry and check the dates of how long everyone has been in possession of the land, before you speak to your neighbour

Yes, a solicitor will not tell you how to legally take this land from your neighbour, because you can't!

In your position I would put up a high, good quality fence at the end of the garden so that you can’t see the mess behind any more. I might also talk to the neighbour about putting a gate into your new fence so that you can have access from the footpath across the “disused” land into your garden.

A Land Registry search on the neighbour's property will give you an instant answer OP on whether he's been there long enough to make a legal claim. It takes 5 minutes and, from memory, costs less than a fiver.

Not enough info.

Just have a chat with the neighbour. Explain that now you have sorted out your garden you would like to do what he and other neighbours have done with the 'spare' land. I'm sure he's expecting you to want to take it over.

I don't understand why you think you have any right to this land, OP? It's nothing to do with you that the neighbour has fenced off this land years ago. You are only moved in 6 months ago so lost your opportunity to take part of the land.

OP, you have absolutely no claim to the land at all, all you're going to do is piss off your neighbour and get nowhere.

The original owner of the extra land has a claim, obviously. If he's been occupying it unchallenged by the owner for 12 yrs, then so does your neighbour. He can legally be registered as the owner under adverse possession if he satisfies the criteria. You can't, you've not been possessing it.

If you approach him about having it, I'd expect him to tell you to jog on, just like if it was part of his original garden.

Just because it is behind your house it isn't more yours than his. You honestly have no claim at all.

You could try to trace the original owner and buy the bit, but if they then chuck everyone else off their extra bits of garden, you won't just have pissed off your neighbour, you'll have pissed off the whole street.

I honestly think the best thing to do is just accept you don't have a bigger garden.

The very most you could do is very very nicely ask your neighbour if they would let you put a gate into the extra bit so you can get to the footpath via his garden. He might let you, you never know.

I agree, the very fact that in the title of the thread you say he has stolen it says a lot.

You don't know what happened before you bought the house and you don't know who owns it. But you don't own it.

When we bought our house there was a 30cm strip at the bottom between our house and the neighbours that was inside of 'our' fence but that nobody owned and it was holding things up so much that the seller moved the fence to fence it out.

Agreed. The actual owner of the land has a claim to it and your neighbour has a claim depending on how long he's been using the land, you however have absolutely no claim to the land. There's simply no way to pursue this without pissing off your neighbours and even then you won't end up with the land so it just seems a pointless way in ensuring you piss them all off.

Unless you lived there for over ten years you can't claim it. How owns the land, any background, what's on land register...it's a Honeypot of bees...you want to shake it....

But if the neighbour hasn't been using it long enough to claim adverse possession he doesn't have any more right to it than OP. Why should he continue to have 'double helpings' of this extra land?

He was only able to dump his garden rubbish on it because the previous owner of OP's house was elderly and immobile and either didn't know or didn't care.

All the other houses in the terrace now have access to their rear garden from the footpath having informally adopted 'their' bit of land. That sounds pretty useful to me and I'd want my house to have the same benefit and not be the only one disadvantaged.

That sounds pretty useful to me and I'd want my house to have the same benefit and not be the only one disadvantage

Well yes, but the OP doesn't have it, the neighbour has it. We don't know what happened before she moved in.

She bought the house as it is. She didn't have any difficulty buying it because the boundaries were in the wrong place.

She hasn't paid for a fence or maintained the land.

It's not her land. It's some land at the bottom of her garden.

Long thread so haven't read all. But the land registry polygon data is available, and you can map it yourself. It might give a clue as to whether it has an owner. If it has, I doubt any have a claim. If it hasn't then there's a legal process to go through to obtain it. It doesn't magically happen. Similar situation here with neighbours just informally laying claim, that was until the owner wrote them and they backed off. It's annoying feeling surrounded like that. I'd personally prefer a DMZ/no mans land.

He was only able to dump his garden rubbish on it because the previous owner of OP's house was elderly and immobile and either didn't know or didn't care.

How do you know that? Perhaps he got on with the neighbour and thought nothing of it.

I think that going in faux naive about finding out who owns it and seeing if you can buy it as he has confirmed he doesnt own it, and see what he says. Having to pay (or potentially lose) his section may well lead him to agree to you taking over that bit. Or not.

Point is, his reaction will tell you what you are batting back with, if anything.

About 15% of land in the UK is unregistered, but I'd start with a land registry search. Anyone can do one, costs a few £. But I'm not sure you can force someone to give you access to land that neither of you own.

As others have said start by paying £6 tonight online to do a land registry search of that land and buy the title and plan. Then see is same name as your neighbour (probably will not be). then you could contact the true owner and ask to buy the land.
If not you could start using it too and gradually push the neighbours junk stuff into "his" bit behind his garden.

Building in a gate or removing part of your back fence would give you access through the parcel to the path, for a start.
The neighbour couldn't stop you. Gradually you could beautify more of the area.

Talk to him about either buying it or sharing it. Happens a lot around here.

If he's had it long enough, he's likely have the right to be legal owner.

There's no way you have a right to it unless there were errors in the land registry documents you got when you bought the house.

Depending on the landscape your way, he may have done quite a big job keeping it cleared.

If he's not legal owner or entitled to be, I'd expect that he might be open to you crossing it at least. Have a chat.

There is absolutely no point in you bringing in solicitors to force him out.