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's so weird that the stolen land only starts halfway down. Who wouldn't notice the fence cutting into their land at a random spot?? Wouldn't it have made more sense to place a whole new fence, front to back, a bit further onto your property? That way, it might not have been so obvious. NOT saying that this is OK, by any means, just saying that it's extremely odd to start a fence that's on your land halfway down the boundary. Makes the stolen land unmissable.

The reason they've started the fence half way down is because that's where their property starts.
The first part of our wall has a boundary with a side street/road and the other half is with the CFs property. If that makes sense..

Can't be doing that as it can lead to a bigger issue. Need to act with logic than emotion otherwise it'll fall on me.
It's the sellers issue, not mine so they will need to sort it.

I get where you’re coming from and I’ll explain more clearly. Don’t knock to discuss stolen land, knock to discuss anything else and suss them out. Parking perhaps!

you will be miserable living next to monsters

The sellers need to resolve it, but they are under no obligation to defend your interests in doing so. Their main motivation may be to sell with as little aggro as possible and without having to declare a dispute, and they might not be that invested in who ends up owning a small patch of land that they were getting rid of anyway. @Netaporter gave a really pragmatic example upthread where she split the land into 2 pieces, nominally kept the disputed patch (which the neighbour is still squatting on) and re-advertised the reduced main plot. Another similar scenario is they let the auction sale fall through, sell the disputed patch to the neighbour and re-advertise the reduced main plot for sale.

I think it's a bit disingenuous to consider this purely a dispute between neighbour and vendor. On paper, sure. But if you hadn't spotted the change, the vendor would have pocketed the full agreed price and lost nothing at all. The one who stood to lose out was you. You did really well to spot it, but you may have some unpalatable choices ahead unless the vendor goes in to bat for a restoration.

This auction falling through might not be a disaster for the vendor. It might be a necessary step in a longer game. And ultimately you might end up securing the property even if this auction fails - if you still want it at that stage. All is not not lost, but neither is it as simple as the vendor is obliged to do the difficult bit and get the boundary put back for you.

I'd be looking for other oroperties in the meantime.

It doesn’t work like that for auction properties 🙄 as has been mentioned throughout the thread 🙄

So if you buy a house at auction and it turns out that it is substantially changed since then you can't back out?

2 types of auction. Op has not exchanged contracts.

OP’s words -
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.

We can't back of from buying the property because we'll lose the nearly £10k auction fee we've paid.

Auction rules are very different to standard buying. OP has contacted her solicitor and is waiting to hear what happens next. Not minimising what the cf neighbours have done, but it’s hardly substantially changed as @BacktoBeginnersFran put it. I hope OP gets it sorted and doesn’t lose any money here.

I’ve only come across this thread tonight and just wanted to say that if there is any way at all you can back out without loosing £10k then do it! If you can’t back out without loosing money, I would still strongly consider it.

This neighbour sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen. They’ve stolen part of your garden before you’ve even moved in. As someone who lives next door to a complete and utter asshole - trust me it’s not worth the hassle in the long run. They will most likely make your life hell when they have to take down that fence and then when you go on holiday or even out for the day you’ll be coming back wondering whether they’ve done something to your property. It’s not a nice way to live! Trust me if I’d have known 10 years ago when we bought the house what a nightmare ours would be, I would have waited at paid £10k more for something else.

Morning everyone

We do have updates and more to come over the next day or 2, I'll post at end of week with the progress rather than in small parts. So far - so good.

I hope by the end of this dilemma - anyone who comes across this situation, finds this post beneficial! I will post in detail as to who was able to help, who wasn't and why they couldn't.

Sounds promising, good to hear 😊

Sounds hopeful @MummyToBeAgain1 . Fingers crossed 🤞

Looking forward to it! Hope all goes smoothly from now on

Good luck OP

Sounds very promising OP 🤞🏻

Sounds promising. Hope it all goes well. 👍

🤞 good luck!

Sounds hopeful, good luck!

Omg… leaving me hanging!

Ooh I'm glad things are happening OP!

Good luck OP🤞

Sounds like it'll be informative and interesting, glad it's good news for you!

@MummyToBeAgain1 What are the updates? Have you managed to sort this mess out with the cf neighbours?