NEIGHBOUR CROSSED THE BOUNDARY BEFORE EXCHANGE

[MummyToBeAgain1]

Hi

I need some advice please.

We're buying a semi detached property and due to exchange and complete in a week or 2.

Over the weekend we drove past the property to find a fence being built between our garden and the property on the right. I suspected they had come in to our garden at a glance so drove past again yesterday.

The fence had fully been up and clearly it crossed in to our garden (to be). I've attached a quick drawing which shows what I mean. The red line is the fence the neighbour has put up.

Just for some context this is a auction property as the owner has died and the children wanted a quick sale. This means that we have a deadline for completition which makes things more stressful.

What do we do now?

Tia

I remember this one. Sadly, in the midst of it all the poster lost their baby. It was either a stillbirth or a neonatal death, can’t remember which. I guess the land grab faded into insignificance at the time.

Oh how awful! I didn't know that. How sad.

Commenting so that I see the updates. I find these type of legal situations very interesting and informative. Good luck, I hope you get it sorted.

I know you love the house but we had terrible neighbours in our last house. Low level issues but it made our lives miserable and I hated being at home. Things like them watching us all the time over the fence, removing things from the boundary, coming into our garden whilst we were out, shouting over the fence, blocking our drive etc. Nothing you can prosecute but they were just horrible bored lonely old people.
We moved to get away from it. Now we have lovely neighbours and it feels so much nicer to be at home. Don't underestimate how this behaviour can affect you.

Thank you! I didn't realize that.

Never mind.

I was going to say something similar to above… Do you REALLY want to live next to people like this? I have had terrible neighbours and the emotional toll was excessive. Your home should be a haven, not a cage that keeps you trapped to someone else’s bad behaviour.

I would agree, my experienced it myself thankfully, but my DSis did, it was awful.

You know you can just watch the thread and bookmark? 😊

I've tried that before but it never seems to work.

What cf!!

This is disgusting & I hope karma bites those neighbours forever. I hope the next time they buy a house, THEY have a CF neighbour who steals their land and causes problems.

After my father died, several of my mum’s neighbours tried to take advantage of her, thinking she was a sweet old lady who didn’t know anything. It was disgraceful the way that so many people who had known my parents for many years used my father’s sudden & unexpected death as an opportunity to scam an elderly lady. Unfortunately for them, my mum is secretly very sharp and has numerous children who would bury bodies for her, if needed.

Mum came home from a long visit to my younger sister’s and found that the fence at the end of the garden had been moved several feet into her property, destroying many mature plants. My older sister is a solicitor who has a very public reputation for being a shark. Upon receiving my sister’s letter, the neighbour immediately agreed to replace the fence with a much taller one at the correct boundary (as my sister told him disgustedly “we don’t even want to have to SEE you”), replaced the plants & paid for a year of professionals to care for all of it.

The fellow next door suddenly started hosting wild parties that spilled into her garden each weekend. The next weekend, he was met by my enormous brother and his fellow (also enormous) military professionals who very politely explained to the neighbour that his wild parties were messy & disturbing the peace. Everyone went home very early and he hasn’t had one since.

Another neighbour kept going over to the house to claim that my dad had promised him tools, fishing equipment, bits and bobs. These were blatant lies because my dad never liked this neighbour and his death was so sudden that he wouldn’t have thought about putting his affairs in order for the little things. My mum kept putting him off and got to a point where she wouldn’t answer the door when she saw him coming. They live in a small (gossipy) village, so I made sure to confront him in a crowded place and read him the riot act about trying to take advantage of my poor sweet newly-widowed mum. I did also mention the land-grab neighbour and the party neighbour and ranted that I was disgusted about how the men in this village immediately thought to scam an old lady. It was the talk of the village, mum has kept her pristine “sweet old lady” reputation, and, because the church ladies got involved and were watching everyone like a hawk, no one has bothered her since.

Once the church ladies are involved, you know you’re in trouble if you’re a shark @PoppyTries .

Well done @PoppyTries and family.

I think the CF’s reaction will tell you a lot. To be honest, as others have already said, I would be very concerned about moving next door to people like them. It’s not a simple mistake, they have knocked a wall down and stolen items from the garden! I would seriously be thinking of withdrawing from this house purchase.

i wouldn’t. The OP loves the house.

I put up with shitty, trespassing, loud neighbours for several years. Guess who won? They moved and I’m still here.

Publishing their obnoxious antics, swearing, trespassing and their dogs shitting in my front garden to their church FB page was quite effective. They had heretofore been seen as the ideal family involved in many church / school activities.

Web cameras and social media are your friend, OP. It helps to have a sister who’s a solicitor, too.

Shamelessly waiting for an update ☺️

OP can’t just withdraw from the purchase - it’s an auction property which has very different rules to a regular house purchase.

I'd be gobsmacked if the OP cannot withdraw from the purchase given that what she 'bought' is now not what is actually there.

Her contract is to buy X, but what actually exists is now Y!

That’s what I thought.

Honestly, I've been checking my emails - glaring at my phone all day long. I sent the email to my solicitor with as much detail as you can imagine. I've since called and the receptionist said my sols looking in to it and will update me as soon as poss.

My solicitors fantastic - I know this because I've used her in the past so I've got full faith in her.

On another note - a deadline has been set for completition - about 6 weeks from now which I think is more than enough time to sort this situation out.

Who set the deadline?
I would be resisting that as even if the CF neighbours admit what they’ve done, it needs to be made good before you complete. If they don’t admit it and want to right then it could take a very long time.

The auction company set the deadline.

It took the CF neighbour 1/2 days to create this mess so hopefully he sorts it out as quick. Otherwise, the seller will need to request an extension to the deadline till they manage to sort it.

Whilst I'm sat here waiting to see how we proceed as per my solicitors guidance, may I ask you a question.

I'm under the impression you work within this field, would you know what happens next in my scenario?

Is it as simple as my solicitor sends an email to the sellers solicitor to fix the issue. The sellers solicitor then contacts the seller and they decide between them whether the seller will approach the neighbour or the solicitor will send a letter to them?

Any info would be helpful, the 'not knowing what to expect' is the hardest part.

Fingers crossed…

Hopefully once the sellers solicitor gets into the CF’s things will move quickly.
They probably think they’ve got away with it…

Do your sellers even know about this yet?

Because if they don't, I'd want to make sure they knew.