To extend my garden onto public land?

[FlutterShite]

My neighbour a few doors down has done this.

Our gardens back onto a public footpath bordered by wide grass verges. My neighbour's garden extends on to part of the verge, with a fence around it to make it part of her garden.

She says it was like that when she bought the house, but reckons it's as simple as building the fence and waiting a few years, after which time the land becomes mine. Is that true or absolute nonsense? I've emailed the council planning department to ask, but haven't yet had a reply.

I think after 15years unchallenged it becomes yours

Not true any more- the lines on the land registry are what counts.

You emailed planning! The whole concept relies on nobody noticing/caring.

You... emailed... the council planning department about this???
Seriously?
Why on Earth would you expect them to tell you about legal loopholes enabling people to steal their land from them?
What you've basically done is grassed your neighbour up for stealing public land and I wouldn't be surprised if they pay her a visit and get her to put her fence back in line with everyone else's if they can enforce it still at this point.

I didn't tell them where I live, just in case!

Lol, no, I emailed to ask how to apply to extend my garden. This was before Christmas and I didn't realise it was based on a cheeky loophole. I thought it was like applying for a dropped kerb.

You want to steal public land?

Just say that to yourself.

Steal.Public. Land.

They're the council! Assuming you pay council tax, it's fairly easy for them to find out where you and your CF neighbour live!

FFS. Of course you can’t just extend your garden into public land and hope for the best.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adverse-possession-of-registered-land/practice-guide-4-adverse-possession-of-registered-land

They do regular checks for encroachments so I expect she will be hearing from them at some stage.

Not when it's an email from [email protected] sent from a phone. My council tax account is under a different name. To be fair, that could be why they haven't replied.

Can’t believe you emailed about it 😂 does your email address not contain your name??

or did you write ‘hello, looking to steal land, thanks, Mrs X’

They probably haven't replied because they don't know what to say.

You can't apply to extend your garden on to someone else's land. You can acquire some by stealth like your neighbour and hope nobody notices. Or you can buy some land that's available to buy.

A friend did this and then struggled for years to sell their property (and rightly so!)

How is it public land?? A footpath itself is public access across someone else’s land, not public land. The bit either side of it is private land. Your neighbour is a thief. Even if you try to claim unregistered land there’s a legal process to follow.

You emailed looking for permission or instructions on how to steal?

I didn't tell them where I live, just in case!

Assuming you used your real name it would take the council 2 seconds to find out your address via the electoral role. Also without an address they would be unable to give you a definitive answer anyway. But yes, as others have said, what you are contemplating depends on the council NOT noticing and no one else complaining.

This.

Nec vi, nec clam, nec precario is the legal maxim.

You've shot yourself in the foot with that email.

Did you expect the council to answer a question about how to steal their land from the email address [email protected]?

😂😂😂

😂No - just to tell me how to go about applying to extend my garden. I couldn't believe people would pay for actual fencing in the hope they wouldn't get caught, when it's obvious from the public footpath that the garden is longer than the others.

Can we have a diagram please op 🤣

This is really funny. Thank you.

But what do you mean 'apply to extend your garden'?

We had a strip of council land at the back of our previous house and we could rent it from the council to extend our garden a bit, it wasn't much, just a token amount each year.