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.

There's a row of terraced houses near where I live. They have claimed the disused land that backs on to their houses. They have built sheds, etc, on the land. I can't remember why, but the company who actually owned the land was doing a survey or something and saw people had used the land. They had letters from the company or solicitors asking to remove everything. I'm not sure what happened in the end. I think the residents were trying to claim the land, but it wasn't there's to claim. Do you know who actually owns it? Maybe you could buy it from them.

Agree - if that's the culture of the area he is probably expecting the conversation.

I really would be careful of doing anything that could upset every neighbour on the street, over land that's not in use by its owner (if it has one)

There's always a flip side, if you were the owner how would you feel to have 12 or so squatters?

What I've learned is that give people an inch and they'll take a mile. And most people are greedy. Most of my neighbours are. I've seen neighbours widening their gardens by meters where it's obvious that the gardens can't be. And taking advantage of 'olds' that can't get out to their gardens. Plus re-wilded land and wild land, and out of bounds land often has lots of value in itself. With flim-flam about keeping it tidy, maintaining it. Sadly once someone does it, it's a race to the bottom.

If the neighbour only has rubbish on your bit, whereas his bit is tidy that tells me he thinks he is only having it on a temporary basis? Also what boundary is between the rough ground and your garden now? Or is it just overgrown? If overgrown could you just not clear it and fence it ‘assuming it’s mine’…?

your neighbour will likely give you your bit

your previous owner threw spanner in work by not taking the bit at the back

if you’re gonna pinch land then the whole row has to do it or someone would notice the staggered backs

a uniform boundary extended is much harder to spot

i know from personal experience as our row did same years ago

next door may not have really wanted it but took it so entire row would get away with it

That's just fly tipping then, report it to the council.

Whatever you do, don't contact the owner of the land out of the blue and ask to buy it. Not unless you want to fall out with your immediate neighbour and everyone else in the terrace who has quietly adopted 'their' bit.

This is a legal 'textbook' type answer from MN's lawyer who famously bought an island.

You have neighbours OP and are very wisely treading carefully. You may well be able to adopt 'your' bit too if you go about it in the right way but writing to the owner or unilaterally shifting your neighbour's garden rubbish back into 'his' bit which he has planted up is likely to stir up a whole lot of anger and resentment which will last for years.

Do a Land Registry search, speak to your neighbour and sound out the others in the row.

I think she said it was a fence the neighbour had built, which was very dilapidated. There will be no doubt that boundary is OP’s to fence, which is why I suggested that step 1 would be to tell the neighbour that she plans to re-fence it. This could result in a discussion where the neighbour gives up the bit directly behind OP’s garden, or they could “compromise” on a right of access across the “no man’s land”.
But OP definitely does not have to live with being able to see the neighbour’s mess at the end of her garden.

Post in legal or gardening. You won’t get decent responses on here.

The responses here are spot on. Unless OP has some sort of right of access, she has no right to the land, so all she can do is take steps to stop her neighbour using it, unless they have had it long enough to claim adverse possession.

She has no right whatsoever to appropriate that land just because other neighbours have.

Perhaps they have taken away the OPs ability to access their garden from the rear.

Unless OP has a legal right to do so, and it would be in the deeds if that’s the case (which OP is refusing to answer which suggests no such right exists), then tough luck.

If there is / was a right of way / access he can’t negate that even if he has managed adverse possession of the land.

It’s still land with a ROW over it.

I would start with that.

This is all very extreme. He didn’t steal your garden. It’s not your garden and he didn’t steal anything, he simply uses some unused land behind your garden and has done for some considerable time.

you need to go and speak to him, historically there has been no issue with him using it, it was disused, you can ask him not to, as you wish to claim it, but you’ve no more right to it than he does, and that’s the key part.

you have no more right to it than him, so instructing solicitors is pointless. You simply need to fall on his good nature.

She absolutely does have the right to build a new fence at the end of her garden though. And if that fence happens to have a gate in it, who is going to stop her unless the actual owner of the land pops up?

Who said otherwise?

Don’t know who that’s aimed at, but of course she can do what she wishes on her own land, within permitted planning.

but she’s no more right to thr land behind her garden than you , me or the neighbour has,

Nobody. I am just highlighting this as a compromise option that might solve her problem of having to look at the messy land.

I’m not saying that anyone said she could NOT do what she wanted with her own land. I’m just pointing out that she can, as nobody else seems to have suggested this.

Not every comment has to be “aimed” at someone, for goodness sake.

Ok I think it’s the way it’s written, it looks like you’re disputing something. But yeah sure, she can build a fence.

You edited the post to add more as I commented.

The neighbour could apply for adverse possession and would be able to stop OP using that bit of land for access.

This matter does but cause any issues for OP - she’s simply seen other neighbours with an extended garden and wants it too. So if shes going to start causing issues, she needs to be prepared for any consequences.

So who owns the green bit behind your black line?

If it is not you or N1? Then common?

But if common no one should use it to store stuff

And yes I have read it but can't get my head around it

Even if she doesn’t want to pursue the access, she should still build a new boundary. One of her complaints is that the existing fence is dilapidated and she has to look at the messy land. That is legally easy to solve.

if she were also able to get some access to the back path, all well and good, but it would not be the main driver for building a new fence.

I would query how useful the footpath access is anyway. If the entrance to the footpath still a way from a road then it’s no use for getting deliveries (eg of fence building materials!)
Dog walking and access by people in dirty boots I guess.
Might just be better to fence it off properly and forget about it.

I think there's some law that if you maintain unregistered land for x years you can claim it as yours.
However I would say to them that you need access to the footpath (which you have a right you in your deeds ) and would like to take over the piece of land at and of your garden like neighbouring houses- see what he says - he may be expecting it- especially if its just used for storage. You can offer to help with clearing/ fences etc