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

It is stressful and you are doing all the right things emailing and ringing everyone, 6 weeks can fly by! Unfortunately Ime unless you do it yourself you can’t be sure what’s done. We had a whole chain collapse the day before exchange (due to complete 2 weeks later the week before Xmas) because one of the sols (not ours) had got the wrong end of the stick about one the the environmental reports that our property was on contaminated soil and advised their client that they should get us to pay indemnity or pull out! I was in hospital with a poorly baby and safe to say hopping (this sol had been dragging feet for months by this point too). I made one phone call to the search company and one to the council who sent me the right paperwork- all was clear. I sent this to the relevant sols. However they again sat on it and did nothing and the top of the chain lost the rental and it all collapsed. Eventually got it all up and running again and moved in spring but no one was happy! Anyway my lesson is don’t rely on anyone make the calls yourself

Surely a verbal agreement with the dead owner is worthless.

Hope it turns out all right.

Glad to read you latest update that you are being more proactive. Unfortunately 6 weeks flies by in these situations, and even if your solicitor has been good previously, it’s easy for things not to get done promptly. Relying on clear and efficient communication between all parties isn’t the best idea so the more you phone/email and connect everyone to the issue the better.

Very fashionable these days, I'm told

I’m glad you’re taking this as a matter of urgency. Await the updates

I'm glad yours got sorted in the end. What should be a happy, exciting time becomes so overwhelming when you put kids/work in the equation.

I would have alerted the auction house immediately and asked them to pass your number on to the sellers who could decide whether to call you or not

My sol hasn't done anything so I've now got to email everyone to alert them of this situation

You really need to hassle your solicitor because this is urgent and she may not be experienced with this kind of situation as it's tending more litigation than conveyancing. Lawyers IME don't always treat somethign as urgent unless they are made to feel that by the client.

The longer it's left, the more of a problem you have got.

The sellers need to know because they and their solicitors should be all over it immediately.

@usersldjfksdoi

exactly

im amazed that the estate agents have not reached out to them!

the sellers sale is at risk yet they are totally unaware

What you bid to buy is no longer correct.
I think your solicitor, the auction house and the representatives of the sellers, plus the sellers themselves should be all over this.

I would re making a recording of what has happened which is criminal damage I believe.

They have interfered with the property of another.

This obviously halts the sale until resolved.

Land can only be sold or transferred by written agreement (Section 2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989). Any verbal agreement is worthless, even if it existed.

Spot on.
I think this is the issue for my sol - she's good at the convenyancing side but maybe not so much on the litigation side - or atleast doesn't have the experience and understanding!

I'm going to send her an email now to raise a further enquiry regarding this matter with the sellers solicitor.

As previous posters advised this needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Estate agent, my sol and auction person are on my speed dial now.

@MummyToBeAgain1 I haven't read TFT and I know it isn't what you want to hear but in your situation I would be prepared to walk away from your deposit. The road ahead could be very costly. The chances of the seller pressing for you to complete the contract when the deal has ostensibly changed is fairly low as this would take place in a civil court which is both lengthy and costly (and I say this as someone who has had more than one buyer drop out on a property sale after the Auction has ended). You are going to have live next door to these people and whilst their actions are completely galling, it is potentially a long battle to get them to retreat. Having also had someone try and claim the boundary line of a fence/hedge was not the 'actual boundary' I can advise you that the red Line on the LR documentation is only considered to be accurate within + or - 0.5m. An expert to declare the boundary combined with legal fees is both lengthy and expensive - possibly more than your 10% deposit but this might be offset against your claim for trespass (your neighbours fence is effectively trespassing on your land).

Firstly you need to confirm that the people in the house are the legal owners of the property - it could be tenants taking the piss in which case matters might resolve themselves quicker than you realise. Assuming that they are the legal owners, the last time I had this issue (which I had tried to resolve in every single way) I created a land strip of 0.75m under a separate title in a company name which was worth£100 and which reflected the land which the neighbour claimed was his which years of google earth photos had shown to be on my demise. The LR accepted this new title, I moved on selling the property without having to declare a boundary dispute (because the new boundary was clear) but advised potential buyers that there may be the opportunity to acquire the 0.75m of land at a future date. I let the neighbour think he had won but in reality he has been trespassing for the past few years which I may or may not pursue.

It doesn't feel like it now, but do the sums. Walking away may be the most cost-effective/less stressful option. A friend of mine had a similar dispute before moving in and the neighbour was unhinged in his behaviour - CCTV pointing at their property/complaining to the council with malicious reports of nuisance and it made her very ill. Your home should be your sanctuary. These people know what they are doing and that probably tells you everything you need to know about them. It starts with a land grab but who knows what they might do next...

I wouldn’t be surprised if the sellers get you to sign a document to ensure that you are aware of the boundary dispute and wish to proceed anyway. They aren’t going to have time to properly deal with the encroachment in the 56 days.

I would recommend that you seek advice from a surveyor, RICS provide a free boundary dispute hotline with a local surveyor.

As you have deeds and photographic proof of the old boundary, you should be okay to proceed rectifying it. They’d need physical evidence it was there’s such as deeds or photograph showing their use for 10+ years. Word of mouth agreement would be no good.

I'm going to send her an email now to raise a further enquiry regarding this matter with the sellers solicitor.

I would pressurise her more than that. Send the email first and then call her. If you can't get through to her, call again, and again and then tell the receptionist this is urgent.

She needs to put in writing urgently to the sellers solicitors and emphasise that they need to deal with it urgently because this is misappropriation of land, a potential neighbour dispute prior to sale and it risks the sale. The sellers solicitors should be asked to formally confirm that they have told the sellers and to respond by close of business tomorrow (24 hours) what they propose to do about it.

I would tell her you are going to get the Law Society involved if she doesn’t respond.
personally I would thinking of losing the money and then look into making a claim against your solicitor due to her negligence

Presumably, even though you went via auction, currently what you bought isn’t what is available so the contract is null and void so you can walk away and keep your deposit? I’d point that out to the auction people/sellers and insist it is sorted otherwise you won’t be signing anything.

I would tell her what you want her to do:

Contact the auction company - raise the issue with them.
Contact the sellers - raise the issue with them.
Hit pause on any time-sensitive stuff.
Contact the sellers neighbours if appropriate with a Letter Before Action.

Often that gets things moving!

I'd back out and lose the deposit or whatever is at stake.

UNLESS it is all legalised by completion date. It might be the house of your dreams now, but it might not be once you move in even if neighbour reinstates the grabbed land. Personally I'd hate to have to look out my window every morning to make sure there were no further incursions overnight, or when I was away.

Sorry for sounding so negative. Those are just my feelings on what I personally would do based on what you have described so far.

Good luck either way and I do hope it will be resolved to your satisfaction.

OP, you need to be making this a huge problem for the Auction house..

Include a recording of where they have interfered with the property.

Create a huge paper trail for yourself.

Also consider Small Claims Court if the cost is under their threshold to put right.

People are very surprised by how useful the Smalls Claim court is.

Pull out. You don't want to live next door to these people.

@Toptotoe it’s the SRA not the Law Society, once you’ve followed a firm’s complaints procedure. All OP’s solicitor has done wrong so far is be a bit slow.

When the sellers find out they will need to decide whether to go through a lengthy and expensive process of reclaiming the land and reinstating the boundary, or the lengthy and expensive process of pulling out of the auction, changing the deeds to reflect the new boundary and relisting.

How much difference does it make to the garden of the house you are looking to buy? If you can manage without the strip of land, I’d consider what price reduction you’d take to accept it as it is. If that figure is in keeping with the cost to the seller of fixing or relisting, they may well go for it.