Neighbour stealing my garden!

[fencedispute2024]

See obligatory diagram.

i can home today to find that my neighbour has put a new fence up and taken part of my garden. The blue area is my garden, grey is neighbours and the red part has now been fenced off.

the area is definitely mine. I’ve even shown a copy of the plans from when the house was built to the neighbour and his response was “anyone could have drawn that”. It’s a document that is signed and stamped FGS.

neighbour moved in 8 years ago so doesn’t have an adverse possession claim. There was previously a hedge there which was removed before neighbour moved in. 2/3 of the garden is a fence. Neighbour has extended that fence in a straight line rather than the boundary. We both own in case relevant.

where do I go from here?

What a strange attitude.

Maybe the OP should just fence off where I've put the yellow line. It is all in front of their house after all 🙃

No she isn’t. The land is the subject of dispute, and she can be charged with criminal damage if she removes the fence. Advising her to take a sledgehammer to it is ridiculous. Legal advice is the way to go if the neighbour has resorted to fencing off the disputed portion.

If she removes the fence she could be charged with criminal damage. The land is disputed. Legal advice first.

Even if she just removes the fence and returns it, the neighbour could have her charged with criminal damage. I’ve been in a similar position and took legal advice when we came home from holiday to find our new neighbour had fenced off a portion of the top of our garden - he’d decided the boundary was wrong on the plans and instead of discussing it, he waited until we were on holiday and then fenced it off. The first thing we were advised was not to touch the fence as we could be held responsible for any damage incurred in removing it - not just damage to the fence itself.

I'd send him a letter attaching the two title deeds informing that he has a week to remove the fence or else you will be removing it and re-siting it to the boundary. Tell him to speak to his conveyancing solicitor if he doesn't believe the diagrams on the land reg

There would be no basis to charge her for criminal damage on the basis of unintentional damage, as long as she took reasonable care. If you were advised that then I would say that was bad advice.
https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/crime-info/types-crime/criminal-damage/
There may be a civil case for any accidental damage but I don't feel like it would be clear cut.
You would have to make safe the area once removing to avoid a separate injury claim, eg you couldn't leave a dangerous hole where the posts were, or a nail sticking out, but that would apply whatever the situation.

Are you FROM Bellshill by any chance? 😀

@Rosscameasdoody a solicitor advising you the only course of action you can take is to instruct solicitors? How surprising!

Solicitor.

Go to the land registry or get a solicitor to do it. It should be fairly clear cut.

Can you not just remove it? My next door neighbours kids are little shits and throw their rubbish into my garden. I throw it straight back over the fence where it belongs. I would treat this the same way to be honest. Remove it from my land and place it back on theirs (without causing any damage).

What?

That’s not what I said is it ? I said they advised that removing the fence could open up a claim for criminal damage if the fence or anything else was damaged in the process. Strictly speaking OP has a right to remove the fence and return it to her neighbour - there is something called ‘abatement’ which allows her to do that, but the law doesn’t like it - again there is the question of damage incurred in doing so, and if the matter does end up in court, you can’t rely on the court agreeing that you have acted reasonably. There are four stages to resolving the issue properly (and without taking a sledgehammer to the fence, as one helpful poster suggested).

First you should discuss it with your neighbour if possible - ask what their own understanding of the property boundaries are. Secondly you should consult relevant documents - in this case OP’s Land Registry documents showing the established boundaries and the neighbours sale documents in relation to the boundaries. You can also get a copy of the neighbours boundary from Land Registry if necessary. If there is still no resolution you can consider mediation to try to sort out any misunderstandings. Lastly you can move to legal proceedings if all else fails.

For ourselves, mediation sorted it out because up until that point our neighbour had steadfastly held that he was right and our boundary was wrong. It wasn’t and during mediation it was pointed out to him that he didn’t have a strong case legally, so could end up substantially out of pocket. He dropped it.

Clear their fence, and build your brick wall. With a locked gate.

Aren't you a generous soul?! With other people's property anyway.

Would you just give away a chunk of your garden? And to make matters worse, have the neighbour's bins under your window?

I would be inclined to involve a solicitor and take it from there.
Good luck 💐

When I was growing up, we had new next door neighbours who, from the moment of moving in, started banging on about their deeds showing that they should have about half a foot’s width more of our garden. My folks held firm.

First day of secondary school (for me), my mum took me down to the bus then returned home with my sis to find the neighbours, whom must have thought we’d all left for the day, banging new fence posts into our garden.

Mum sent my little sis out to spy and rang dad, who came home, went out into the garden with his chainsaw, didn’t say anything to the neighbours (who up to that point still thought we were all out), and cut the posts down.

I was gutted that I wasn’t there to watch 😂

I don’t know who legally has more of a claim (I assume we did), but it baffled me that the this couple wouldn’t prioritise cordial relations with their neighbours over an extra few inches down the length of what were already big gardens.

Anyway, they never tried it again.

Are you sure you are not misinterpreting the land registry drawings? Could you post those up? It’s just that it looks like a really weird boundary. I can’t understand why you would have what really does look like a piece of their garden? It’s a strange layout.

It's not a strange layout if you look at the houses . The bit that the neighbour is trying to steal is directly in front of the OP's house

I think this is the best idea so far, it looks like it ‘should’ be his and you could make a bit of money if you sell.

It’s a strange layout if you read the original description of what side OP owns in relation to that red square which seems to be the neighbours side of the boundary anyway.

Courts are expensive. However, a solicitors letter demonstrating it's your land and that they need to remove the fence or pay rent at a rate of £100 a week shouldn't be that expensive...

He knows what he's done. I would start by reminding him that it IS your land and you really don't want this to get ugly...

Did he remove the hedge? If you have photos with the hedge, it's criminal damage that he removed it and theft as it's your hedge on your property.

I'd also be interested whether your house has a covenant which means you're not allowed a fence... Mine has one that says it's supposed to have railings and a gate but they got taken away for the war effort! They are enforceable though when they need to be.

Start with a letter, attaching the plans. Give him a reasonable time frame to move the fence. If he doesn't move the fence go to court.

You can’t maintain a relationship with knobheads.

Get a solicitor to write them a letter to remove the fence within 30 days. On the 31st day, remove their fence.